German sociologist Andrej Holm has just been released on bail by German federal police. After his arrest under paragraph 129 of the German Penal Code on suspicion of “membership of a terrorist organisation”, he was held in solitary confinement for a week, only being allowed out of his cell for one hour a day. His home and office were searched, his mail intercepted, and his defence lawyers still don’t have access to the evidence being used against him. What was Holm’s crime? Apparently, he used the word “gentrification”.
In what has to be one of the most absurdly Orwellian attacks on academic freedom this year, Holm and another academic were apparently targeted on the basis of the police’s amateur discourse analysis that found “key words and phrases” in common between their academic work and the leaflets of a radical group opposed to gentrification, militante gruppe (mg). Apparently, they both use such seditious terms as “gentrification”, “inequality” and “imperialism”, and according to American professor Peter Marcuse the police’s 80,000-page dossier (so far not shared with the defence) also compares the use of punctuation and abbreviation. The evidence presented so far really is as thin as whether Holm uses “G8” or “G-8”. Apparently the similarities are “striking, and not to be explained through a coincidence”.
The police have been sure to pepper these pathetic accusations with accusations of “comprehensive conspiratorial contacts and meetings” with “Florian L.”, another arrestee, but these are equally fatuous. The fact that Holm didn’t take his mobile phone to meetings supposedly adds to their “conspiratorial” nature, and he is also accused of attending the protests against the 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm – along with about 25,000 others. The most striking charges, though, relate directly to the academic qualifications of the accused. Dr “B”, the academic arrested alongside Holm who isn’t even accused of writing anything inflammatory – it’s simply that he is “intellectually in a position to compile the sophisticated texts of the militante gruppe” and “as [an] employee in a research institute has access to libraries which he can use inconspicuously in order to do the research necessary to the drafting of texts”. If the capacity to write a document and access a library is now grounds for arrest, then millions are potentially at risk of such treatment, and academics are signing an open letter demanding their colleagues’ release.
Many academics choose to devote their energies to assisting the state, developing problem-solving analyses to combat “extremism” and “terrorism” and other government objectives. These individuals are left alone while those more sceptical academics whose work openly criticises the status quo - while never advocating violence- are subject to criminal prosecution. The heavily politicised nature of this assault on academic freedom is clear. Academic freedom means academics must be at liberty to study what they please and publish what they think after following a rigorous process of research and peer review by which the academic community regulates itself. It also means a certain distancing from the possible consequences of the research. Academics can’t legitimately be held responsible for what’s done with their work in the public, political sphere, since this would stifle their pursuit of knowledge and truth. However unpalatable the truth might be, its pursuit is the specialised role of the academic and its value to society is recognised in the very idea of academic freedom.
Academic freedom doesn’t shield academics from the consequences of the actions they undertake outside the profession, such as engaging in political or criminal activity – in these spheres they’re subject to the same rough-and-tumble debate or judicial sanctions as anyone else. But it does mean that even if Holm’s work is being used by mg, and even if he knows it, he can still publish and not be damned. It does mean that neither Dr “B” nor anyone else can legitimately be harrassed for having a PhD and access to a library, just in case he provides some intellectual grounding for a radical group, or anyone else. To hold Holm or “B” responsible for what mg do makes no more sense than holding Karl Marx responsible for Josef Stalin’s brutal inversion of the emancipatory promise of Marx’s analysis of capitalism, or holding the moral philosopher Adam Smith responsible for Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies. The capacity to think should never be criminalised.
Lee Jones
Thursday, 23 August 2007
Is speaking your mind gay?
Users of Facebook will know there are thousands of ‘groups’ you can join, for everything from political parties to favourite bands or daft ‘just for fun’ stuff that often makes no sense to the uninitiated. The group pages show news, pictures and videos relating to the topic, and members can make friends with one another and take part in discussion forums. Membership of a group also shows up on your personal profile page, so even if you’re not that interested in getting involved, joining is still a bit like wearing a badge.
Once such group seems to be The word "gay" is not a synonym for "stupid", which currently has an impressive 78,232 members, and, more alarmingly, 28 ‘Officers’ and 14 ‘Admins’. On one level, the group simply expresses frustration with the use of the word gay as a term of disparagement. Actually, I don’t think this usage is quite synonymous with ‘stupid’ – more like ‘naff’ or ‘lame’, but that’s by the bye. The group’s general attitude wavers between pedantry and prudery, and is not very attractive, but that’s not important either – for a critique of this kind of censoriousness, see Censoring students at Oxford? That is so gay, by Maria Grasso.
What’s really interesting about the group is the enormous, 925-word preamble. Before doing anything else, visitors are told: ‘**STOP AND READ ALL OF THIS FIRST**’ What follows is a pre-emptive rebuttal of possible objections of various kinds, referring people to earlier discussion threads about censorship and the idea that language simply evolves, for example. To be fair, some of the points made are well-argued, but they are hardly the last word on the subject, as is implied. This preamble is followed by ‘Recent news’, which is really more of the same, but with added warnings against advertising and unsolicited friendship requests. The group’s ‘wall’ – a general posting area found on all Facebook pages – has been disabled too. Whatever else it is, this group is not gay. ‘Frigid’ might be a more apt insult.
Ultimately it is not surprising that a group set up to police language should end up trying to police debate about policing language. No doubt our choice of words reflects how we look at the world, and to some extent our political views, and it is fair enough to draw attention to it – though the connection between the new use of the word gay and prejudice against homosexual men and women is tenuous to say the least. More importantly, the attempt to stamp out particular words or their particular usage betrays a simplistic understanding of how the process works. The redefinition of words is a side effect of political debate and cultural production - books and films are rather more influential than speech codes. It isn’t established by edict, and the self-consciousness generated by this approach is anathema to intellectual freedom and good humour. There can be no better illustration of that than this Facebook group.
Dolan Cummings
Once such group seems to be The word "gay" is not a synonym for "stupid", which currently has an impressive 78,232 members, and, more alarmingly, 28 ‘Officers’ and 14 ‘Admins’. On one level, the group simply expresses frustration with the use of the word gay as a term of disparagement. Actually, I don’t think this usage is quite synonymous with ‘stupid’ – more like ‘naff’ or ‘lame’, but that’s by the bye. The group’s general attitude wavers between pedantry and prudery, and is not very attractive, but that’s not important either – for a critique of this kind of censoriousness, see Censoring students at Oxford? That is so gay, by Maria Grasso.
What’s really interesting about the group is the enormous, 925-word preamble. Before doing anything else, visitors are told: ‘**STOP AND READ ALL OF THIS FIRST**’ What follows is a pre-emptive rebuttal of possible objections of various kinds, referring people to earlier discussion threads about censorship and the idea that language simply evolves, for example. To be fair, some of the points made are well-argued, but they are hardly the last word on the subject, as is implied. This preamble is followed by ‘Recent news’, which is really more of the same, but with added warnings against advertising and unsolicited friendship requests. The group’s ‘wall’ – a general posting area found on all Facebook pages – has been disabled too. Whatever else it is, this group is not gay. ‘Frigid’ might be a more apt insult.
Ultimately it is not surprising that a group set up to police language should end up trying to police debate about policing language. No doubt our choice of words reflects how we look at the world, and to some extent our political views, and it is fair enough to draw attention to it – though the connection between the new use of the word gay and prejudice against homosexual men and women is tenuous to say the least. More importantly, the attempt to stamp out particular words or their particular usage betrays a simplistic understanding of how the process works. The redefinition of words is a side effect of political debate and cultural production - books and films are rather more influential than speech codes. It isn’t established by edict, and the self-consciousness generated by this approach is anathema to intellectual freedom and good humour. There can be no better illustration of that than this Facebook group.
Dolan Cummings
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Peter Tatchell and Reggae-bashing
Peter Tatchell has in recent years been running a campaign against Jamaican dance-hall artists who use homophobic language in their songs. His most recent article attacking ‘murder music’ on the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog was a revealing demonstration of practically every dismal contemporary anti-free-speech argument and prejudice going. Let’s take a look at these censorious shibboleths.
- ‘This is not a free speech issue’
Er, yes it is. Attempting to prevent someone from expressing a view is censorship - no ifs, no buts. It’s fine if you want to argue against free speech, but you should come out and say it. Tatchell’s claim that free speech advocates are hypocrites because they don’t defend the free speech of Nazis. Er… again, often they do. Is he ignorant of the ACLU’s defence of the Ku Klux Klan’s right to free speech for instance? He’s either setting up straw men, or he’s profoundly ignorant of the position he’s criticising.
- Censoring thought as well as speech
Peter Tatchell has a great interest in whether Banton and Beenie Man have only ‘cynically’ signed up to his charter to avoid the financially costly campaign that Tatchell waged against them, or whether they’ve really converted to his nice liberal viewpoint. Who cares? He has shut them up. Tatchell’s demand that they think appropriate thoughts is worthy of a medieval Inquisitor.
- Contempt for the audience
The most degrading aspect of attempts to restrict free speech is that they are implicit attacks on the rationality of the listening (and thinking) public. He sees Jamaican reggae fans as a potential mob ready to tear people apart at the mention of the words ‘batty-boy’; a vision worthy of the most fevered white-colonial imagination. There’s no denying there are regular homophobic attacks in Jamaica, but to reduce this complex social phenomenon (hatred of, and violence against homosexuals) to some song lyrics’ supposed capacity to incite hatred is laughable.
- The campaign is chauvinistic
Like so many commentators nowadays, Peter Tatchell jet-sets around the world to find examples of foreigners being beastly to one another (see also his recent trip to Russia). There’s nothing wrong with international solidarity, but grandstanding demands that foreigners comply with our standards only strengthens the hand of our own governments to intervene abroad, and distracts from the hard work of winning the fight for equality in Russia or Jamaica.
- PC censorship sets an awful precedent
Peter Tatchell forgets the case of Canadian feminist Andrea Dworkin, who became the target of her own anti-pornography laws. If Tatchell really wants to imagine that our enlightened government might never use censorship against gays, he’s welcome to his illusions. Let us hope the rest of us aren’t so foolish. As was mentioned on this blog a few days ago, Islamists in Britain were banged-up using laws against ‘incitement’ of the same type that Tatchell argues for. Tatchell may have no sympathy with Hizb-ut-Tahrir or whoever; but his line of argument would criminalise legitimate expressions of violent thought, including everyone from old Irishmen singing Fenian songs in a pub, to angry young rappers insulting the police.
The lesson of the UK to Jamaican gays is that they need the solidarity of the wider community to win freedom and equality. The censorious arguments of Tatchell and other British ‘liberals’ who see their peers as violent idiots, do them a disservice.
Robin Walsh
Friday, 10 August 2007
Race out of the closet
Doreen Lawrence, mother of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager murdered in 1993, has launched a broadside against Boris Johnson, citing a 2002 article in which he refers to ‘flag-waving piccaninnies’ (a pejorative term for black children) and suggesting that when Tony Blair visited the Congo, ‘the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief’. According to Lawrence, ‘This is the most offensive language of the colonial past and it shows that the Tory party is riddled with racial prejudice. No one with such views can be the mayor of a city with the largest black population in Britain.’
Have Lawrence, or the MPs Diane Abbot and Dawn Butler who have jumped on this bandwagon, even read the article? The Telegraph op-ed piece is actually an attack on the British political elite – not black people. Johnson suggests the Queen travels to the Commonwealth so often because it’s the only place she can attract large crowds of flag-waving kids – which is arguably true. More substantively, he lambastes Tony Blair for his constant jet-setting around the world’s troubled hotspots with his arrogant conviction that he can bring peace – while ignoring problems at home such as transport, healthcare and education. It is in fact a perfectly reasonable article that uses the ‘offensive language of the colonial past’ to ridicule Blair’s liberal imperialism and his disconnection from the ordinary people who elected him to solve their problems – not gallivant around the world dispensing his own brand of messianic wisdom. The failure of the ‘liberal’ media to explain this in their reports means Johnson’s enemies can slur with impunity.
It seems pretty obvious that Lawrence has been put up to this by Ken Livingstone’s office. On Radio 4’s Today programme last week, he said he was half-way through reading Johnson’s old columns to dredge up muck against him. Very likely the quotations in this article were fed to Lawrence so she could use her apparently apolitical position to attack Johnson as a racist. These are smear tactics of the worst kind, playing on the iconic status of a 14-year-old murder (the police’s role in which, incidentally, Boris recognised – despite his broadsides against political correctness – was marred by ‘racialist’ attitudes) to score cheap political points.
If this is the best evidence they could dig up to ‘prove’ Johnson is a racist, their case is pretty weak and reflects the Labour party’s own desperation – its tactics of trying to discredit Tories by suggesting they’re all closet racists is wearing decidedly thin. Moreover, Lawrence’s attack reveals the regulatory thought-policing that is commonplace among supposedly ‘liberal’ opinion today. In another article, Johnson slammed proposals to make racist speech in private illegal, noting that ‘not even under the law of Ceausescu’s Romania could you be prosecuted for what you said in your own kitchen’. Lawrence refused to accept this, saying: ‘clearly it can never be acceptable to hold those views. Anyway, what is said in private normally manifests itself out in public’. Since Johnson’s enemies are apparently woefully unable to find any public ‘manifestation’ of his supposed racism, perhaps their next call will be for MI6 to bug his kitchen.
Lee Jones
Have Lawrence, or the MPs Diane Abbot and Dawn Butler who have jumped on this bandwagon, even read the article? The Telegraph op-ed piece is actually an attack on the British political elite – not black people. Johnson suggests the Queen travels to the Commonwealth so often because it’s the only place she can attract large crowds of flag-waving kids – which is arguably true. More substantively, he lambastes Tony Blair for his constant jet-setting around the world’s troubled hotspots with his arrogant conviction that he can bring peace – while ignoring problems at home such as transport, healthcare and education. It is in fact a perfectly reasonable article that uses the ‘offensive language of the colonial past’ to ridicule Blair’s liberal imperialism and his disconnection from the ordinary people who elected him to solve their problems – not gallivant around the world dispensing his own brand of messianic wisdom. The failure of the ‘liberal’ media to explain this in their reports means Johnson’s enemies can slur with impunity.
It seems pretty obvious that Lawrence has been put up to this by Ken Livingstone’s office. On Radio 4’s Today programme last week, he said he was half-way through reading Johnson’s old columns to dredge up muck against him. Very likely the quotations in this article were fed to Lawrence so she could use her apparently apolitical position to attack Johnson as a racist. These are smear tactics of the worst kind, playing on the iconic status of a 14-year-old murder (the police’s role in which, incidentally, Boris recognised – despite his broadsides against political correctness – was marred by ‘racialist’ attitudes) to score cheap political points.
If this is the best evidence they could dig up to ‘prove’ Johnson is a racist, their case is pretty weak and reflects the Labour party’s own desperation – its tactics of trying to discredit Tories by suggesting they’re all closet racists is wearing decidedly thin. Moreover, Lawrence’s attack reveals the regulatory thought-policing that is commonplace among supposedly ‘liberal’ opinion today. In another article, Johnson slammed proposals to make racist speech in private illegal, noting that ‘not even under the law of Ceausescu’s Romania could you be prosecuted for what you said in your own kitchen’. Lawrence refused to accept this, saying: ‘clearly it can never be acceptable to hold those views. Anyway, what is said in private normally manifests itself out in public’. Since Johnson’s enemies are apparently woefully unable to find any public ‘manifestation’ of his supposed racism, perhaps their next call will be for MI6 to bug his kitchen.
Lee Jones
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
Chants, rants, Rangers and racism
Glasgow Rangers’ new American winger DaMarcus Beasley may have helped his club by more than just scoring the only goal in Tuesday night’s Champions League qualifier against FK Zeta in Montenegro. Rangers went through 3-0 on aggregate, but it was Beasley’s complaints about racist chants from the Zeta fans that made the headlines the next day. Abuse of visiting black players is still common at matches in that part of the world, and no doubt unpleasant for those on the receiving end, but the real significance of the story was that it meant for once it wasn’t the Rangers fans who were being scrutinised.
In recent years, fans of the Glasgow team have been under increasing pressure to stop singing their traditional songs and chants, which have a notably anti-Catholic flavour (long story – I refer curious readers to something I wrote last year). While the songs in question are undoubtedly offensive – as with many if not most football songs, that’s kind of the point – they have little bearing on the real world, and it is not at all clear who is supposed to be harmed by them. The growing clamour to stamp out these songs, with official threats to deduct points from the club if the fans persist, has less to do with the behaviour of Rangers fans themselves than with a colossal loss of perspective on the part of the chattering classes. The sentiment behind calls for something to be done was perfectly expressed by Mike Small, a Scottish lefty from central casting, in a Guardian Comment is Free post this week. It is not only unworldly, but mean-spirited and unbearably self-righteous; I’m tempted to say bigoted.
While the Scottish Premier League delegate (or chief inquisitor) reported fans for shouting ‘Fuck the Pope’ at Rangers’ opening game of the season in Inverness on Saturday, it seems those who travelled to Montenegro heeded the club’s warning to ‘behave’ rather than risk having the team forced to play behind closed doors. The attention given to racist chants by Zeta fans may be a welcome relief for the time being, but ultimately any defensive finger-pointing (like the tiresome insistence that Celtic fans sing sectarian songs too) is only likely to reinforce the censorious culture that threatens to make Ibrox sound more like a kindergarten than a football stadium.
As a Rangers fan, I’m looking forward to the new season, and hope we stick it to the Celtic. I’m less interested in DaMarcus Beasley’s colour than in whether he can be the new Peter Lovenkrands, but with more consistency. That’s the sort of question people should be debating the morning after a match, rather than scrutinising the repertoire in the stands. The inquisitors of UEFA, the SPL and the comment pages can just fuck off.
Dolan Cummings
In recent years, fans of the Glasgow team have been under increasing pressure to stop singing their traditional songs and chants, which have a notably anti-Catholic flavour (long story – I refer curious readers to something I wrote last year). While the songs in question are undoubtedly offensive – as with many if not most football songs, that’s kind of the point – they have little bearing on the real world, and it is not at all clear who is supposed to be harmed by them. The growing clamour to stamp out these songs, with official threats to deduct points from the club if the fans persist, has less to do with the behaviour of Rangers fans themselves than with a colossal loss of perspective on the part of the chattering classes. The sentiment behind calls for something to be done was perfectly expressed by Mike Small, a Scottish lefty from central casting, in a Guardian Comment is Free post this week. It is not only unworldly, but mean-spirited and unbearably self-righteous; I’m tempted to say bigoted.
While the Scottish Premier League delegate (or chief inquisitor) reported fans for shouting ‘Fuck the Pope’ at Rangers’ opening game of the season in Inverness on Saturday, it seems those who travelled to Montenegro heeded the club’s warning to ‘behave’ rather than risk having the team forced to play behind closed doors. The attention given to racist chants by Zeta fans may be a welcome relief for the time being, but ultimately any defensive finger-pointing (like the tiresome insistence that Celtic fans sing sectarian songs too) is only likely to reinforce the censorious culture that threatens to make Ibrox sound more like a kindergarten than a football stadium.
As a Rangers fan, I’m looking forward to the new season, and hope we stick it to the Celtic. I’m less interested in DaMarcus Beasley’s colour than in whether he can be the new Peter Lovenkrands, but with more consistency. That’s the sort of question people should be debating the morning after a match, rather than scrutinising the repertoire in the stands. The inquisitors of UEFA, the SPL and the comment pages can just fuck off.
Dolan Cummings
Won't somebody please think of the children?
Two stories came out in the UK last week that dealt with risks or threats to 'our children'. Both mooted solutions to are censorious in character.In the first, the Professional Association of Teachers demanded, at their annual conference, that YouTube be banned on account of 'cyber-bullying'. Some people evidently have more sense, such as the head of the BeatBullying charity (who no doubt has added to the bullying paranoia itself) who proclaimed, 'calls for social networking sites like YouTube to be closed because of cyber-bullying are as intelligent as calls for schools to be closed because of bullying.'
Secondly, following the implementation of the junk food advertising ban, The Guardian reports that marketers are following kids online, sometimes using social networking sites to created branded 'friends'. Although Ofcom's remit doesn't stretch to online advertising, The Guardian notes that, 'the Advertising Standards Authority's code of conduct was recently extended to include online marketing to children, [but] it has left open a loophole that many brands exploit. That is that anything classed as 'editorial' is exempt from the ASA code.' One fears that calls to extend these regulatory bodies' purview are not far away...
[NB: Against the contention that advertising is not a free speech issue, see this article by Brendan O'Neill].
Not to be outdone by the poms, the Australian Labor party is seeking to stop marketers using cartoons to advertise their greasy/sugary wares to children. For an attack on such nonsense, read the Manifesto Club Interest Group in Australia's blog on the subject.
Alex Hochuli
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