David Lazar’s exercise in know-nothingism, redbaiting, and
right-wing bullying cannot go unanswered (“On-campus
communist support appalling,” Oct. 20).
Lazar, of the Bruin Republicans, declares it unacceptable that
the César E. Chávez Center and the Ralph J. Bunche Center
for African American Studies would sponsor a lecture by Raymond
Lotta titled “Socialism is Better Than Capitalism, and
Communism Will Be a Far Better World.”
Lazar’s method of attack is worthy of Joseph McCarthy.
First, Lazar responds to the Daily Bruin advertisement for
Lotta’s lecture by reciting standard lies about communism
““ precisely the assumptions Lotta takes on in his talk. Lazar
and company want to keep people uninformed and ignorant about
communism.
Next, Lazar suggests that by sponsoring Lotta’s lecture,
the two centers are providing “on-campus communist
support.” The centers were not endorsing Lotta’s views,
but rather striving to promote substantive debate about one of the
most important issues of the 20th century and questioning whether
the world we live in is the only world possible.
Perhaps it is this spirit of critical intellectual inquiry that
Lazar finds so intolerable.
Finally, Lazar issues a chilling ultimatum:
“Academic freedom will not be served until these two
centers either regain a sense of legitimacy, or risk being replaced
by departments that do not dedicate themselves to historical
revisionism and ideological hegemony.”
Who gave Lazar the authority to determine the legitimacy of
centers and programs serving the deeply felt needs of minority
students and the cause of progressive scholarship?
Lazar’s arrogance and threats might be laughable under
other circumstances. But Lazar is playing his part in a concerted,
reactionary assault on academia ““ and it has political
backing from within the Bush regime ““ to muzzle critical
thought and dissent in the university.
In the name of academic freedom, these forces want to turn the
university into a place where there is no questioning of
established government authority or the international role of the
U.S., where there can be no challenge to the official narrative of
American history, and where there can be no open debate about
alternatives to capitalism.
These reactionaries want to purge or silence progressive and
radical professors. They seek to destroy the influence of the 1960s
and gut or dismantle black, Chicano and women’s studies.
Theirs is an agenda of intimidation and thought control.
This new McCarthyism must be opposed. The attacks on ethnic,
women’s studies and other progressive programs must be
resisted.
Critical thinking and dissent must be defended and spread to
society. The times demand this of us.
Veale is an organizer of Raymond Lotta’s lecture with
the Set the Record Straight project.