Ramsay’s groupthink

Arena, 26 July 2019. Read the original here. Does anyone want to hear another word about the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation? Since the ANU rejected Ramsay last year, the centre may, as its ‘chief executive’ Simon Haines acknowledges, have been slower than it anticipated in starting collaborations with Australian universities. But the prospect of…

On free speech on campus, and why the French code will be no help

Overland, 1 July 2019. Read the original here. Following conservative hysteria after a short-lived student protest when Bettina Arndt’s ‘fake rape crisis tour’ came to Sydney University last year, many universities have now agreed to implement the code of practice developed by the former Chief Justice, Robert French, in his review of freedom of speech…

The Ramsay Centre and the reality of ideology

Overland, 28 March 2019. Read the original here. Along with all its other horrors, 15 March was a terrible reminder of the reality of ideology. With the ideas behind the massacre of fifty Christchurch Muslims a click away in the gunman’s manifesto, there was, for once, no shortage of commentators ready to pinpoint how racist…

After Christchurch universities have a responsibility: abandon Ramsay

Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 2019. Read the original here. There has been much discussion since Friday of politicians’ and parts of the media’s responsibility for promoting Islamophobia. But what of the role of institutions like universities? Since June last year, a heated debate has been underway on whether universities should collaborate with the Ramsay…

Tomorrow Students Strike For Their Future. But Like Iraq in 2003, They Shouldn’t Assume They’ll Be Heard

New Matilda, 4 March 2019. Original here. Among people who care about the planet, the massive turnouts expected around the country – and the world – for tomorrow’s climate demonstrations are fueling justified excitement. It’s not just that hundreds of thousands of students will go on strike from school and demand real action on global…

The Attack on Palestinian Universities

Jacobin, 30 December 2018. Read the original here. Israel’s efforts to cripple higher education in occupied Palestine continued relentlessly in 2018, with Israeli universities acting as key tools of the occupation. The systematic punishment inflicted on Palestinian academics and students didn’t attract anything like the global attention of Gazans’ March of Return, but it deserves…

Lessons from the Yellow Vests? Some thoughts on unions, ‘recruitment’ and ‘mobilisation’

If the French Yellow Vests have had such impact in the absence of any of the usual structures of organised unionism, what are the implications for how those structures might need to be rethought?

If Israel Was A School Shooter There Would Be A Moral Debate

New Matilda, May 19, 2018. Original here. Israel’s killing of at least 60 Palestinians at the Gaza boundary fence on Monday defied the 24-hour news cycle and stayed firmly in the headlines most of the week. For good reason: on its own, Monday’s death toll constituted over half of the one hundred and eleven people…

Nakba Day: The Palestinian Slaughter Goes On But A Path To Peace Is Still Possible

New Matilda, May 15, 2018. Original here. Today is Nakba (‘catastrophe’) Day, when Palestinians commemorate the cataclysm of their expulsion from their homes in 1948. The most important voices to hear today are theirs: before they read Western commentators, anyone who cares about the tragedy of the Middle East should read Palestinian ones. There could…

Ramsay course offers stark choice to Australian universities

Sydney Morning Herald, 6 September 2018. Read the original here. Pared down to its essentials, the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation course confronts Australian vice-chancellors with a stark choice: are they willing to let their institutions’ authority to be used to bolster xenophobia and national chauvinism in our society? The entire educational mission of the…