Other Episodes:
Episode 1 voting and you: -chris
Episode 2 police and protests: -tony
Episode 3 Guest Preacher: -Alyssa Kopf
Episode 4 John Hickenlooper and the CCMEP: -tony
Episode 5 The Peace Candidate: Guest Preacher, Sunny Dawn Freeman Genz
Episode 6 Stomping on Haiti: Guest Preacher, Gary Swing
Episode 7 Advice to an 18 year old: -tony
Episode 8 Deep in the Heart of a Red State: -librarytroll
Episode 9 Statement on Ward Churchill: -Breakdown Book Collective
Episode 10 9/11: The Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century?: - Gary Swing
Episode 11 Don't Have a Cow, Man: - Gary Swing
Episode 12 When Clinton Lied, Yugoslavia Died: - Gary Swing
Episode 13 Why I support Ron Paul (and Hitler) - Tony Shawcross

Please note, the views of the Soapbox Preachers are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of denverevolution. Any facts presented have not been confirmed by denverevolution.
If you're interested in preaching from the soapbox, please send to c(at)denverevolution(dot)org

Episode 9: Statement on Ward Churchill: Guest Preacher, Breakdown Book Collective, February 2005

On September 11th 2001, after the planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the state along with the capitalist media scrambled to forge an "official" narrative from the rubble and destruction visited upon Manhattan and DC. This narrative included Palestinian children dancing in the streets and official "histories" of terrorism that omitted the Oklahoma City bombing and other white nationalist attacks. At the core of this narrative was a claim to American innocence. On that day, while most of us watched as tragedy was commandeered to serve Empire, Ward Churchill penned a counter- narrative. Rather than an isolated attack by crazed Islamists, Professor Churchill saw 9/11 as but one piece of a greater struggle between a US that was pushing an imperial project throughout the world, and a growing sector of the world that had resolved to push back. Borrowing a line from Malcolm X, Churchill declared that the "chickens" of US foreign policy had "come home to roost," nestling, as it were, into the most significant symbols of US capitalism and militarism. 9/11, Churchill maintained, was not an attack, but a "counterattack" . an assertion he later grounded in over 200 pages of rigorous and thoroughly documented research. The initial statement itself, "Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens," is about as old as the events of 9/11. The essay has been circulating on the web for over three years. It's served as the content of numerous talks both locally and around the country, including a talk given at the Metro State College of Denver Honors Conference. It was even given on the steps of the Colorado Capital as early as October of 2001, in full view of numerous media representatives and state politicians . politicians, mind you, who are now lining up in the house and senate to pass resolutions declaring this collection of words "evil." Why is this essay suddenly news in February of 2005?

While theories abound . and collectively we suspect a number of forces at work here . they are almost beside the point now. Yes it probably has a lot to do with the pro-Columbus backlash in the wake of the recent All Nations Alliance / Colorado AIM victory . a victory that saw a jury acquit Ward and others in AIM leadership, as well as the dismissal of charges against the 250 other demonstrators involved. It probably also has a lot to do with the momentum David Horowitz, "campus" Republicans and others are gaining in their attack campaigns against "liberal" and "leftist" professors at universities everywhere. It may even have something to do with Minnesota AIM, the Bellecourts, and the many others in the American Indian political milieu who have beef with Ward. Likely, it's all this and more -- a dovetailing of Ward Churchill haters, rallying behind an opportune moment. Lets face it, anyone who's spent anytime with Ward can tell you why he's got no shortage of enemies . he's made a career spitting truth in the face of power.

This leads us to our statement of solidarity with Ward. Much of the progressive and left communities have lined up to defend Ward's "right" to say what he likes, while at the same time distancing themselves from his statement. We find this kind of civil libertarianism to be dubious at best. When one considers what violence and terror such "right" has sanctioned, the type of terror and violence Ward has spent much of his lifetime addressing in his work, appeals to constitutional "rights" are extremely problematic. Instead, we'd simply like to state that Ward was right. He was right to point out that September 11th is a direct result of the wars (both overt and covert) US Empire is waging. He was right to state that capitalist functionaries play a role in both driving and making sure these wars run smoothly. While we think that his "little Eichman's" analogy is a poor one, we think so principally because it obfuscates . capitalism has presided over so much violence and suffering that it's unnecessary to draw analogies from fascist history. Most importantly though, Ward is right in recognizing and stating that US Empire visits terror on the world every day, both outside and inside US borders. Until this Empire is dismantled, some of that terror will be returned, and none of us are safe from it.

We here at Breakdown have worked and organized with Ward on a number of occasions. Is he a flawless person? Absolutely not. Is he provocative? Both in persona and in scholarship. We stand in solidarity with Ward Churchill, and we will fight alongside him against those seeking to defame his character or take his job. We also stand in firm solidarity with his statement. If this manufactured "controversy" has any lesson for us at all, it is this: the public discussion of 9/11 and the ramifications of US Empire is far more impoverished than we had ever imagined. Because we believe that it is the actual content of his article, and not the sound- bites, that so threatens those in power, we believe it to be a poor time for the left to fall back on meaningless appeals to civil libertarian and least common denominator politics. We have been handed a golden opportunity to agitate for greater critical thought around the events of 9/11 and US Empire, and now is no time to distance ourselves from this task.

Breakdown Collective, February 2005


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