Free Speech

Suspended Columbia Student Activist Speaks Out

April 11, 2024 Left Voice. Resist! Columbia, Education, Free Speech, Palestine, Retaliation, Youth Activism

On Wednesday, April 3, Columbia University suspended six students, including a Palestinian student and two Jewish students. These suspensions came two nights after students were visited at their homes by private investigators hired by Columbia. The investigators also sent threatening emails to leaders of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition fighting to compel Columbia to divest all its economic and academic stakes from Israeli apartheid. The emails pressured the group to cancel a rally on April 4 for Al-Shifa Hospital, organized with Student Workers of Columbia (SWC).

Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Uhuru 3 Put State On Trial

April 3, 2024 Penny Hess, Black Agenda Report. Resist! African People’s Socialist Party (APSP), FBI, Free Speech, State Repression, Uhuru 3

In yet another political attack by the U.S. government against the African Liberation Movement, African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) Chairman Omali Yeshitela and two members of the Party’s Solidarity Front are currently under federal indictment and facing 15 years in prison on the basis of our constitutionally protected speech advocating for freedom, reparations and justice for African people. A trial date is set for September 3, 2024 in the federal court in Tampa, FL. As part of the attack on the Chairman, Jesse Nevel, 34, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and myself, 78, Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee are also under indictment as two leaders of the Party’s solidarity committee tasked with winning white solidarity with and reparations for Uhuru Movement anti-colonial economic development programs for the African community.

Palestine And The Crisis Of Free Speech On College Campuses

January 25, 2024 Mel Buer, The Real News Network. Resist! Censorship, Free Speech, Higher Education, Israel, Palestine

Colleges and universities have long acted as incubators for social movements, and the movement in solidarity with Palestine is no exception. While repression against students and faculty for support of Palestine is nothing new, the upsurge in mobilization and agitation for Palestinian liberation since last fall has been met with a frenzied response from actors within and outside of university administrations. Students and faculty alike have faced retaliation from university administrators and Zionists within and beyond the student body, ranging from revocation of scholarships to expulsions, firings, and even physical assault.

US Supreme Court Rejects Bid To Silence Palestinian Rights Advocacy

January 23, 2024 Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams. Resist! Free Speech, Israel, Jewish National Fund, Palestine, US Supreme Court, Victory

Free speech defenders welcomed the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to take up a lawsuit that outlandishly claimed a civil society group provided "material support" for terrorism by advocating for Palestinian human rights. The Supreme Court's punting of Jewish National Fund v. U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights—which comes over three months into Israel's war on the Gaza Strip—marks the third consecutive time a federal court has dismissed the case, which USCPR said casts "collective activism and expression of solidarity as unlawful." In the case's first dismissal in March 2021, a federal judge said that the plaintiffs' argument was "to say the least, not persuasive."

The Law Firm Helping Big Oil Weaponize The First Amendment

January 5, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, climate crisis, First Amendment, Free Speech

For years, the fossil fuel industry has maintained that the First Amendment protects its right to mislead the public about the climate crisis, but that criticism and protest of its operations violates the law. Now, one of the industry’s preferred law firms — which has long been recognized for its defense of the First Amendment — is arguing both sides of this issue in court. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher represents oil giant Chevron in lawsuits brought by dozens of state and local governments to hold the company accountable for deceiving consumers and the public about its products’ central role in climate change.

‘Material Support’ In The Form Of Speech Can Be Criminalized

January 1, 2024 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. Educate! Censorship, Free Speech, Israel, McCarthyism, Palestine, Student Activism

Depending on when you hear this, the Rutgers/New Brunswick chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine might be the most recent campus group to be suspended for what administrators called “disruptive and disorderly conduct,” and “failure to comply with university or civil authority.” SJP is a student-activist network of campus groups in support of Palestinian lives and liberation, and naturally very active now in the midst of Israeli military attacks on Gaza that, as we record, have killed some 20,000 Palestinians minimally, injuring and displacing orders of magnitude more. Calls for a ceasefire, at least, are growing in this country and around the world, but that’s in the face of ever-more aggressive, top-down efforts to shut those calls, and the people making them, down.

Open Letter To The Columbia University Administration

December 24, 2023 Rashid Khalidi, Mondoweiss. Resist! Columbia, Free Speech, Higher Education, Palestine, Zionism

Our deans state that the Columbia community should acknowledge “that hearing chanted phrases such as ‘by any means necessary,’ ‘from the river to the sea,’ or calls for an ‘intifada’—irrespective of intentions and provenance—is experienced by many Jewish, Israeli, and other members of our community as antisemitic and deeply hurtful.” They have thus unilaterally decided that no one should rise up [the actual meaning of “intifada”] against 56 years of illegal military occupation; that Palestine should remain unfree from the river to the sea; and that the oppressed should take permission from the oppressor as to the means to relieve their oppression.

The Selective Silencing Of Campus Speech

December 14, 2023 Kevin Young, Amherst Indy. Educate! Censorship, Free Speech, Higher Education, Palestine, Zionism

“Fears of Violence on Mass. Campuses Are Silencing Many on Israel-Hamas War,” reads a recent news headline from western Massachusetts. The article quotes several professors who say they feel silenced by those who criticize US-Israeli policy. It also quotes several critics of US-Israeli policy who say they feel silenced. What should we make of these dueling claims? The key practical question here is what campus leaders are doing to protect free speech. It’s problematic whenever an individual infringes on another’s free-speech rights, but what’s most important is how administrators respond. They’re the ones who set policies and they also exercise the most influence over campus culture.

Charges Dropped On The Tampa Five

December 9, 2023 Fight Back! News. Resist! Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Police, Tampa 5, Victory

The Tampa 5 are proud to announce a great victory: their misdemeanor and felony charges will be dropped! This victory was made possible by months of mobilizations of people across the state of Florida, and even across the entire country, in defense of the Tampa 5. It is because of the bravery of students and youth protesters coming out for diversity and for student protest, that these five members of Students for a Democratic Society protesters will not see a single day in prison. They have just agreed to a misdemeanor intervention program that will lead to the dismissal of their charges upon the fulfillment of various conditions such as 24 hours of community service.

‘McCarthyite Backlash’: Response To Criticism Of Israel Alarms Groups

October 31, 2023 Chris McGreal, The Guardian. Educate! Civil Rights, Free Speech, Israel, McCarthyism, Palestine

Civil rights groups in the US have warned of a “wave of McCarthyite backlash” against criticism of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza after Americans expressing support for the Palestinians have been sacked, faced threats of violence and hounded by pro-Israel groups. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) has warned of the “continued criminalisation of advocacy for Palestinian rights” and described an “increasing tide of anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab attacks in the US” following the Hamas cross-border attack in which about 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 200 abducted.

Fighting Colonial Oppression, Genocide From The United States To Palestine

October 30, 2023 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. Podcast - Clearing The FOG Black Liberation, Free Speech, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, War crimes

On November 4, people from across the country will gather in Washington, DC for the 15th Annual March to the White House organized by the Black is Back Coalition. Clearing the FOG speaks with Chairman Omali Yeshitela about the theme of this year's march, building an anti-colonial free speech movement in solidarity with peoples who struggle around the world. Yeshitela is one of the Uhuru 3, who are facing 15 years in jail for their activism. Yeshitela speaks about the historic ties between the black and Palestinian liberation movements. Then, Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, joins the program to speak about a new legal brief on the complicity of the United States with Israel in its commission of genocide and other war crimes.

No To APEC Coalition Calls On City Officials To Defend Free Speech

October 26, 2023 No to APEC Coalition, Rising Tide North America. Resist! APEC, Free Speech, San Francisco, US Imperialism

San Francisco - The No to APEC Coalition demands immediate action by Mayor London Breed, the federal government, and all San Francisco elected officials to reaffirm long standing support for civil and human rights, rights to free speech, protest, and dissent during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) “Economic Leaders’ Week” and “CEO Summit,” in November 11-18, 2023. “The Department of Homeland Security has designated the APEC Summit as a ‘National Special Security Event.’ The Secret Service is creating a protest exclusion zone around the Moscone Center, where the event will take place, which threatens to prevent the public from exercising its First Amendment right to protest within sight and sound of the APEC and CEO summit delegates.

Journalist Sues Over Gag Rules At County Jail In Pennsylvania

August 28, 2023 Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter. Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Free Speech, Journalism, Lawsuit, Pennsylvania

Journalist Brittany Hailer has sued a county jail in Pennsylvania for "strictly enforcing" gag rules against prisoners and the jail's employees and contractors. Hailer claims the rules allegedly violate her constitutional rights to "gather news and receive information from otherwise willing speakers." The lawsuit is believed to be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit brought by a journalist against such speech restrictions, and Hailer is represented by the Media Freedom and Information Access (MFIA) clinic at Yale Law School and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP).

The Tampa Five: An Assault On Free Speech

August 28, 2023 Stephen F. Eisenman, Counter Punch. Educate! Diversity, Florida, Free Speech, Police abuse, Tampa Five

On March 6, 2023, a small group of protesters belonging to the University of South Florida chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, trooped across campus to the Patel Center where the university president, Rhea Law has her office. The marchers were mostly young women carrying nothing more sinister than a megaphone, a banner reading “we want increased Black enrollment” and the water bottles ubiquitous among students on Florida campuses. In addition to their demands for higher Black enrollment, they wanted President Law to speak out in opposition to proposed Florida HB999 which banned diversity initiatives, and a meeting with her.

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