Sunday, January 20, 2008 (13:12:46)
We hope 2008 finds each of you healthy and in good spirits, ready for a new round of struggles for a just and sustainable world.At the Ward Churchill Solidarity Network, we are grateful for all the support we have received, and look forward to continuing to work with you on the many cases around the country and the globe where academic freedom and the right to political dissent are being suppressed.
A quick update: In addition to teaching a weekly voluntary class organized by students at the University of Colorado, Ward Churchill had a full fall of speaking engagements across the U.S. Most recently, he spoke on Zionism and Manifest Destiny to an overflow crowd at the University of California at Davis. Despite the usual threats of disruption, the event went smoothly and was well received, illustrating, as Ward’s talks consistently do, that when people actually get to hear a “controversial†speaker, they find themselves challenged by and appreciative of new ideas. In addition to engagements in Canada, from Toronto to Vancouver, Prof. Churchill was also a featured speaker at the National Book Fair in Caracas, Venezuela, in early November.
Ward Churchill filed suit in July against the University of Colorado, charging CU with having fired him in retaliation for speech protected by the First Amendment, and having used the bogus “investigation†of his scholarship as a pretext. That case is now in the “discovery†phase, in which each side will be taking depositions, posing/answering written interrogatories, and producing documents pertaining to the underlying facts. It will probably get to trial before a Denver jury in late summer or fall of 2008.
In the meantime, we have many expenses. We received generous donations from many folks, but still need to raise approximately $30,000 for court reporters, transcripts, copies, airfare and expenses of witnesses, and the hiring of experts. All funds raised will go directly to attorney David Lane, to be used to cover these costs.
Please consider planning a fundraiser, or sending a donation to:
David Lane, Esq.
c/o WCSN
PO Box 20035
Boulder, CO 80308
Questions? Contact us at wcsn@wardchurchill.net
Ward Churchill Solidarity Network website
