On the significance of C.T. Vivian and Adam Michnik C. T. Vivian’s posthumous book, It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, is coming out soon. This reminds me of an important 1984 New School event in which he was honored. That day, the focus came to be upon Adam Michnik. Today, I am remembering Vivian along with Michnik, as I seek to understand the challenge of simultaneously pursuing …
Trump and the war on truth Photo: Courtesy of author. 1. On the morning of December 1, 2020, I was at home teaching an online class for Hunter College students. The subject was how the Chinese government extended its suppression of freedom abroad. Suddenly, outside on the sidewalk in front of my house, a dozen or so masked people appeared, each holding signs that read “CCP (the Chinese …
Understanding Trump and global authoritarianism When I published the first edition of Carl Schmitt: The End of Law back in 1999, Schmitt and his ideas seemed primarily of historical interest.1 Accordingly, my efforts focused on understanding how one of twentieth-century Europe’s most creative right-wing legal thinkers could jump into bed with National Socialism, surely its most heinous political movement. I highlighted how Schmitt’s longstanding jurisprudential concerns ultimately encouraged …
There are means, especially those taking the form of violence, that should not be used to fight homophobia. Outing belongs to them. In August and September 2020 a lively discussion about another case of “outing” of a public figure, i.e. disclosing a person’s sexual orientation against their will, entered Polish public debate. This time, Jan Kanthak, a MP from the conservative party “United Poland” (Solidarna Polska), was outed …
If we don’t hang together, we will surely hang separately In his latest Substack post, Democracy Seminar convener Jeff Goldfarb announced that we “will be developing new ways to extend and strengthen our deliberations in the coming months.” Our effort to create and nourish a “world-wide committee of democratic correspondence” began long before the coronavirus laid waste to our world. And as a world-wide network, our efforts have always involved …
The Kisan Andolan (farmers protests) in New Delhi started more than a month ago in response to three farm bills that were passed in September of 2020 amidst a raging pandemic. Farmers from the state of Punjab and Haryana had started protesting against the bills since September. Towards the end of November, however, farmers unions and associations decided to escalate their protests and started the “Dilli Chalo” (Go …
Five Notes Against Despair, 2021 Despair The Covid-19 pandemic is spreading and is ineffectively controlled, as is the global political pandemic, spectacularly on view in Washington, D.C. White supremacy and politicized misogyny, homophobia and transphobia are becoming ever more virulent, supporting an ascendent right-wing authoritarianism around the world. Economic and social inequalities are increasing, as police brutality against people of color is becoming more clearly visible. And the …
In memoriam I was terribly saddened to learn that Vesna Kesic, a remarkable Yugoslav and Croatian feminist from Zagreb, writer, activist, researcher, journalist, and friend, has just died, taken from us by COVID-19. The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights had grasped Vesna’s presence well, tweeting: “Very sad to learn that intrepid feminist #HumanRights defender Vesna Kesic has passed away this weekend. She blazed a …
Turkey Poland, China, the United States and beyond In 2006, I published The Politics of Small Things. When I submitted the first draft to the University of Chicago Press, all of the chapters pointed to “the power of the powerless in dark times” (my subtitle). All my examples were progressive and secular, leading an anonymous referee to wonder: what about the politics of small things and the religious right? …
I’m a human rights lawyer, dissident, and scholar from China. In China, universities, schools and media are totally controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). There are many forbidden topics that writers, journalists and scholars cannot write about, report on, or even research, such as the Tiananmen Massacre, the concentration camps in Xinjiang, the corruption of top leaders, the crackdown in Hong Kong, and the persecution of Falun …
