We stand shoulder to shoulder with the University of Warwick UCU branch, and their demand for the retraction of statements by some Conservative members of the Education Select Committee in the House of Commons on 27 April. In these statements they called for the summary political dismissal of academics at the university, including the Vice Chancellor, simply because the university had insisted on following due process and the law in addressing allegations against a staff member based on the much-disputed ‘IHRA working definition of antisemitism’.
This event exposes the real agenda of those in the Conservative Party and others promoting this ‘definition’ on campus. We should call these incidents for what they are: witch-hunts.
Had these allegations been heard in a court of law, these same MPs would be widely denounced for breaching the independence of the judiciary. Their statements undermine the ‘autonomy’ (independence) of universities, threatening the separation between universities and the state, the separation of which is the basis of free and independent research and teaching, and ultimately the credibility of independent research in the UK.
As academics and trade unionists we cannot stand by and allow these direct assaults on university autonomy, academic freedom and free speech to go unchallenged, and we applaud Warwick UCU in standing up to this attack.
We also welcome Warwick UCU showing that this incident is part of a pattern, including an attack on historians’ work on British colonial histories involving the same MP, which drew on antisemitic conspiracy theories.
The role of the Williamson campaign to demand universities ‘adopt’ the IHRA working definition is now very clear. Promoted as a possibly-useful tool to help defend Jewish staff and students from racism, in reality it is being deployed as a weapon by politicians and supporters of Israel to silence those who challenge racism and oppression.
Despite attempts by its supporters to present the definition as ‘uncontested‘, this is not the case: a year-long debate at UCL and a working group convened by the Academic Board concluded it was not fit for purpose and would have a ‘chilling effect’ on critical discourse and teaching. Academic Board voted by two-thirds to retract the definition and replace it with another (to be decided). The Senate at Open University overwhelmingly voted to adopt the Jerusalem Declaration, an alternative definition supported by over 200 scholars of Holocaust studies and antisemitism which avoids the conflation of antisemitism with legitimate criticism of Israel found in the IHRA document.
Our first call is one of solidarity. We call on the whole union, and the wider trade union movement, to stand with Warwick UCU and other union branches where staff are facing similarly unfounded allegations of antisemitism.
Secondly, we need to get organised. We invite all UCU members and activists who wish to organise collectively against the imposition of the IHRA working definition to come to our meeting on 6 May.
Initial signatories
Yorkshire & Humberside UCU Regional Committee
Prof Megan Povey, UCU LGBT+ MSC, UCU Women’s MSC, University of Leeds
Sean Wallis, UCU Branch President, University College London
Tom Hickey, Ucu CoCom, University of Brighton
Prof Henry Maitles, Emeritus Professor, University of the West of Scotland
Sean Vernell, UCU NEC, City and Islington College
Carlo Morelli, UCU Scotland President, Dundee
Donny Gluckstein, EIS-FELA National Exec and EIS Council, Edinburgh College
Lucia Pradella, Senior Lecturer / UCU departmental rep, King’s College London
Ümit Yildiz, UCU Black Members Standing Committee, Manchester University
Saira Weiner, Senior Lecturer, UCU Branch Secretary, UCU NEC, Liverpool John Moores University
Bee Hughes, Chair, LJMU UCU, Liverpool John Moores University
Mark Abel, UCU Chair, University of Brighton
Elizabeth Lawrence, Retired University Lecturer
Dr Anne Alexander, Rep, Cambridge UCU, University of Cambridge
Prof Craig Brandist, Sheffield UCU Officer, University of Sheffield
Dr Saladin Meckled-Garcia, UCU Joint Vice President, University College London
Dr Holly Smith, UCU Joint Vice President, University College London, UCU NEC
Tony Staunton, Chair, UCU SWRMB
Michael Szpakowski, UCU member, Independent artist & writer
Peter Jones, Principal Lecturer/UCU member, Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Yara Sharif, Senior Lecturer, University of Westminster
Maria Giaever Lopez, PhD student, University of Westminster
Jasper Tilbury, Visiting lecturer, University of Westminster
Margot Hill, UCU London Region Secretary, Croydon College
Peter Woodward, Learning Technologist / UCU, Imperial College London
Christian Hogsbjerg, Lecturer in Critical History and Politics, University of Brighton
Prof Alex Callinicos, Emeritus Professor of European Studies, King’s College London
Rosemarie Wilson, UCU Equality Rep, City and Islington College
Sybil Cock, London Retired UCU branch vice chair
Richard Mcewan, UCU NEC, New City College
Dr Marian Mayer, Co-chair Bournemouth UCU, Chair South Region, NEC, Bournemouth University Continue reading “Statement of Solidarity with Warwick UCU”
UCU London Region 