As the editorial board of Historical Materialism, we would like to express our condemnation, indignation and anger regarding the unprecedented forms of censorship and ideological silencing with which the Historical Materialism Paris Conference had to deal.
In particular, we would like to condemn the stance adopted by the management of the Dauphine – PSL University, who clearly in reaction to a campaign of defamation by Zionist and Far Right groups, demanded that some participants were excluded from the programme: representatives from Les Soulèvements de la Terre and Action antifasciste Paris-Banlieue, and Houria Bouteldja.
This was an outrageous decision, and amounted to a complete betrayal of the basic principle that public universities and in general academic spaces must safeguard freedom of speech and critical dialogue.
Moreover, we have to stress that we find the decision of the UD CGT 75 secretariat very problematic, as they also demanded that Houria Bouteldja be excluded from the programme after the panels in question were rescheduled, following the Dauphine management’s decision, to be held at the Bourse du Travail in Paris. Trade Unions should be at the forefront of defending freedom of speech and offering solidarity to comrades coming from radical antiracist and decolonial movements.
This case highlights the degree to which the current alignment of Western governments with the genocidal policies of Israel, can lead to dangerous forms of censorship, silencing and undermining of basic rights such as free speech. And we have already had many such examples in various countries.
It also points to how in a period of a global rise of Fascism, the governments in question prefer to target antifascist action, ecological movements and radical antiracism and decolonialism, while at the same time they attempt to make the Far Right part of the political mainstream.
And we have to note that in the more than 20 years of organising Historical Materialism conferences all over the world, this is the first case of such a form of censorship.
The editorial board of Historical Materialism would like to express its fullest comradely solidarity to the comrades that faced this form of censorship: Soulèvements de la Terre, Action antifasciste Paris-Banlieue, and Houria Bouteldja. We stand with them and their struggles. HM conferences around the world have to be spaces where their ideas, visions and struggles are heard and discussed – and we’re committed to ensuring that this remains the case in the future.
The editorial board of Historical Materialism would also like to express its support to the comrades of the Organising Committee of the Historical Materialism Paris Conference. They managed to stand up to this hideous attack, searched and found alternative solutions regarding spaces and made a very successful Historical Materialism Paris conference possible that we sincerely believe will be a turning point in the discussion and dissemination of critical Marxist theory in France.
With 1200 attendees and presenters, the quality of the dialogue, and the comradeship and militancy it reflects, the conference itself stands as the best response to all those who believe that they can put obstacles in the way of theoretical debate and research aiming at radical social change and emancipation.
In Solidarity
The Editorial Board of Historical Materialism. Research in Critical Marxist Theory.
