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Leslie Feinberg's Call to Action |
Message from Leslie Feinberg (April 18, 2005)
Please repost widely to those you think will be interested I was invited by the Colorado Feminist Alliance (CFA) to keynote this year's Take Back the Night rally on April 21. However the Colorado State University administration has tried to silence me. And in doing so, they have revealed a deeper layer of an emerging reactionary campaign to suppress progressive and left-wing free speech on college and university campuses. As a funding source for CFA, the university required me to sign a contract with two egregious clauses. One made me liable for anything that occurred at the Take Back the Night event. The other "indemnified" the university from any responsibility. These clauses open the door for right-wing disruption of progressive events. When I would not sign, the university administration refused to budge on the indemnification. More ominously, students told me officials said they would only waive the liability clause if I provided the content of my talk and a list of some of the campuses I had spoken on, in order to prove that my appearance had not caused trouble. These demands are chilling and unacceptable. As a result, they have threatened to silence a speaker who is transgender, lesbian, feminist, a survivor of sexual/gender violence, a union activist, and a left-wing organizer. Even funds to fly me to Colorado have been blocked by my refusal to submit to these demands. Therefore, in order to speak on April 21, I am paying for my own travel. This struggle with CSU comes at a moment when Colorado is ground zero for a twin campaign across the country. Under the banner of "free speech," a right-wing mobilization is ratcheting up on campuses that are openly racist, anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-Palestinian and pro-Iraq war. At the same time, legislators in Colorado and other states are trying to pass laws to curtail free speech on campus. Now, as during the Vietnam War era, such restrictions will be used against those who dissent against the powers that be. It is no accident that this suppression of progressive and left wing voices coincides with greater student/labor unity, anti-war organizing, counter-recruitment against the Pentagon representatives on campuses, preparations to mount a struggle against the impending military draft, and organizing against racist, sexist and anti-LGBT threats on campus. How you can help: Send messages of support to the CFA for their right to choose their own speakers for the April 21 Take Back the Night event to: tgwarrior@earthlink.net. I will forward those. Notify me if you would like to be part of a campaign to push back reactionary attempts to limit progressive speech on campus. You can contact me at: tgwarrior@earthlink.net. To join me in this building struggle against the reactionary campaign to block progressive speech and organizing contact me at tgwarrior@earthlink.net. |