New Attack on Labor Educators and Academic Freedom
* Andrew Breitbart is (Still) a Liar

1. Right-Wing Hoaxster Smears Labor Educators (Jane
   Slaughter and Mischa Gaus in Labor Notes)
2. Andrew Breitbart is (Still) a Liar (United for a Fair
   Economy)
3. UALE Statement Regarding Attacks on University of
   Missouri Labor Educators (United Association for Labor
   Education)
4. Labor Studies Faculty Targeted -- Compromising Academic
   Freedom and Creating a Hostile Classroom Environment
   AAUP general secretary Gary Rhoades (American Association
   of University Professors)
5. Statement of the Working Class Studies Association
6. What You Can Do

==========
1.
Right-Wing Hoaxster Smears Labor Educators

by Jane Slaughter and Mischa Gaus

Labor Notes

April 28, 2011 (This article was updated on April 29)

http://www.labornotes.org/2011/04/right-wing-hoaxster-smears-labor-educators

Two Missouri labor educators are under attack in the right-
wing blogosphere from notorious hoaxster Andrew Breitbart,
whose outfit was responsible for the deceptive video that
took down the national community organization ACORN.

This week's target is labor studies, specifically a
University of Missouri course taught by labor educator Judy
Ancel and Operating Engineers business manager Don Giljum,
who's taught labor ed classes since 1989.

According Breitbart's website, Ancel and Giljum have spent
the spring semester teaching union members how to gain power
through violence and intimidation.

In a now familiar technique, the evidence for the grand
conspiracy is a video that's been sliced and diced so much
it looks like coleslaw.

Breitbart released two seven-minute videos, deceptively
edited and remixed snippets that are taken from more than 30
hours of classroom video-conference tapes.

The videos cut away context and patch statements together
from weeks apart to turn probing academic questions into
semi-endorsements of violence. Watch Giljum seamlessly
change shirts between sentences. Twisting Words and History

In fact, Breitbart edited the classroom videos to literally
put words in the instructors' mouths.

In one section, Ancel explains how neoliberal governments
use crises to "shift power dramatically." This lecture was
actually in an entirely different course. But Breitbart
inserts the sentence into a lecture on union contract
campaigns, so it looks as if Ancel advocates unions causing
a crisis.

In another section, Giljum told Labor Notes he said, "Labor
can't deny its violent past in response to the repression
that was perpetrated on it. It's hard to say that was not
appropriate at that time; it might have been. I don't
believe those tactics are going to work today and I think
they would do more harm than good."

Breitbart snipped out the words in italics.

Ancel and Giljum co-taught a class on "Labor, Politics, and
Society," during which they asked students to examine why
labor's past was so violent - among many other subjects.
It's a standard topic in any exploration of the American
labor movement.

Breitbart reverses the history of who was responsible for
the violence, though. Violence has been used overwhelmingly
against workers: labor historian Joshua Freeman says that
throughout U.S. labor history, about 700 strikers have been
killed by mercenaries hired by the bosses, state militias,
and the police - the most workers killed in any industrial
country.

Ancel released a statement today, saying, "At no time did my
co-instructor, Don Giljum, nor I advocate violence. There's
no doubt that Breitbart's attacks are politically motivated,
part of a broad agenda to weaken unions and the public
sector as well as public education." Seen This Before

Breitbart announced his intentions on Sean Hannity's Fox
News show April 18, saying, "We're going to take on
education next, go after the teachers and the union
organizers."

Breitbart's big claim to fame is the ACORN set-up, where two
young conservatives tried to con the organization's staff
into helping them set up a business front for a prostitution
ring.

ACORN staff contacted police after the two visited, but mix
together deceptive editing, video of an outlandish pimp
costume added after the fact, and the echo chamber of right-
wing media - and a media firestorm broke out that burnt away
ACORN's funding and collapsed the organization within weeks.

Prosecutors confirmed that ACORN staff didn't break any
laws, but that was never the point. The manufactured
controversy alone was big enough to bury the nation's
largest community organization.

Breitbart's hoax factory operates on the premise that if you
throw enough dirt, something will stick. He's tried the same
tactics on NPR, Planned Parenthood, Senate Democrats, and
the NAACP and Shirley Sherrod, an African-American
Department of Agriculture ex-employee.

The only reason conservative bloggers haven't worked
themselves up into a full lather about the labor educators
is that yesterday's news cycle was dominated by another
crackpot conspiracy theory - that Barack Obama wasn't born
in the U.S.

Both Ancel and several students have asked YouTube to remove
Breitbart's videos, as they seem to violate YouTube
guidelines. They were posted without permission of those
pictured and apparently are the property of the university
(which has been silent thus far). YouTube is investigating.

Ironically, some of the commenters on Breitbart's Big
Government site advocate violence themselves, against "every
liberal dirtbag on the street/campus etc." Muted Response

Reactions in the labor movement were mixed. Herb Johnson,
Missouri AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, said he was "incensed
that we have scoundrels who go out and character-assassinate
good people in our community."

He called Giljum "a great trade unionist" but said the
federation was not yet planning to issue a statement
supporting the two, preferring not to "fan the flames" and
"just cause more reaction."

Instead, Johnson said, the executive board passed a
resolution Wednesday "that we never have and never would
endorse any kind of violence for any reason whatsoever."

The attorney for the Missouri AFL-CIO, Ron Gladney, called
Giljum's international union and asked officials there to
pressure him to resign from his local and international
positions, which they did.

Giljum resigned, despite the fact that he had announced back
in January he would be retiring May 1 - just days away.

According to Giljum, Gladney argued that the incident might
cause Missouri Republicans to take up a right-to-work bill,
which they have till now avoided.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis told Giljum he will not
be rehired next semester. But the provost of the Kansas City
branch said Thursday, after reviewing videotapes of the
class, that Breitbart's video was "inaccurate and distorted"
and that the university was committed to academic freedom
and "the free-flowing discussion of challenging topics in
our courses."

The national AFL-CIO has jumped in to help defend the two
teachers, and the American Association of University
Professors issued a statement. The United Association for
Labor Education, which includes educators both at
universities and in unions, planned a strong defense, with a
Facebook page, statement, and letter to the university. UALE
is urging members to work with their connections in labor
and in education to critique the dishonest video, defend
labor education, and build alliances with Breitbart's other
targets.

UALE Vice President Helena Worthen pointed out that
discussion of labor history and tactics is exactly "the kind
of thing people talk about in labor ed classes: what do we
have to do in order to turn things around? This happens in
political science and history classes all the time."

UALE member Steven Ashby of the University of Illinois said,
"It's no coincidence this attack comes in the wake of the
biggest workers' upsurge in 30 years, in Wisconsin."

The goal of labor education programs, Ashby said, "is to
educate and assist workers to build stronger unions. The
right wing would like all labor studies programs wiped out
because they want all unions wiped out."

Correction: The story originally said 7,000 strikers have
been killed in U.S. labor history. The correct figure is
closer to 700.

==========
2.
Andrew Breitbart is (Still) a Liar

United for a Fair Economy

April 28, 2011

http://faireconomy.org/enews/andrew_breitbart_is_still_a_liar#comment-466

Yesterday, we learned of a vicious attack on the labor
studies program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City
(UMKC) and two of the program's educators, Judy Ancel (UMKC)
and Don Giljum (UM-St. Louis). Andrew Breitbart, the same
rabble-rousing fraud who engineered the attacks on Shirley
Sherrod and ACORN, using chopped up video footage to deceive
the public, is once again behind the lies.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/04/28/2834408/university-says-internet-video.html

This time, Breitbart is using doctored footage from labor
history classes at UMKC to give the impression that the
instructors were advocating violence on the part of union
members.

Details of the attack are available in a response by Judy
Ancel, director of UMKC's labor program.
http://faireconomy.org/sites/default/files/AncelBreitbartResponse.pdf

Fox News and their local affiliates are already amplifying
this attack and leveraging it to continue the assault on
teachers, unions, and the public sector, in general. Giljum,
who is also a manager with the Operating Engineers union,
Local 148 in St. Louis, has been asked by his union and by
the UMKC to resign his positions.

AFL-CIO strategist Nick Unger commented on this ugly
display:

Public education (including post-secondary) and the post-
Depression/World War II public sector and trade unions are
structural elements of modern democracy. Twenty-first
century democracy is built on more than the right to vote.
Eliminating these structures - unions, public education and
the public sector (and mass transit and more) - removes the
underpinnings of democracy, the obstacles to total corporate
domination.

Nick's observation provides a very important frame for a
narrative that bears repeating by all progressives,
including unions, environmentalists, LGBT advocacy groups,
the peace movement, racial justice workers, immigrant rights
activists, etc.

Since our inception, UFE has put forward an analysis to help
explain the growing divide between the top one percent and
the rest of us. Over the last 30 years, a destructive
pattern of rules changes (e.g., tax cuts for the wealthy)
and a shift in power (e.g., the declining membership of
organized labor) have driven economic inequality to heights
not seen in the U.S. since just before the stock market
crash of 1929. And as UFE's mission statement makes clear,
this growing gap not only undermines the economy but
"corrupts democracy."

The people bankrolling Breitbart, Wisconsin Governor Walker
and other corporatist-GOP drones and Fox News, are enjoying
ever-growing bank accounts and investment portfolios as a
result of those rules changes. These are the likes of the
Koch Brothers, the Waltons, Pete Peterson, and other
billionaire puppet masters, pulling strings and coordinating
attacks on the remaining power of workers (collective
bargaining, academic freedom, the right to organize, etc.).

Fortunately, a growing number of people who believe in
democracy, economic and social equity, sustainability, and
fairness are mad as hell and will take it no more!

==========
3.
UALE Statement Regarding Attacks on University of Missouri
Labor Educators

United Association for Labor Education

April 30, 2011

http://uale.org/uale-statement-regarding-attacks-university-missouri-labor-educators

"The dissemination of highly edited, false, and deceptive
tapes that take remarks out of context and distort their
true meaning has become a familiar tactic used by anti-union
forces to discredit those whose views they oppose.  The use
of this disgraceful tactic against Judy Ancel and Don Giljum
is only the latest in a series of efforts to intimidate and
silence teachers, scholars, and activists who have spoken
out against legislative initiatives to curtail collective
bargaining rights for workers and undermine the
effectiveness of labor unions.

"As labor educators, we are committed to enhancing the
ability of workers to participate effectively in workplace
and community affairs.  We also believe that the presence of
a strong union movement not only provides workers with vital
protections but also is essential to maintaining a just and
democratic society.  Accordingly, we view attempts to impede
or prevent labor educators from performing their vital
mission as antithetical to democratic values and
unacceptable.

"We denounce in the strongest possible terms this blatant
attempt to suppress academic freedom, impugn the character
of our colleagues, and circumscribe the boundaries of
political discussion.  We urge administrators at the
University of Missouri to do likewise and affirm the
principles of academic freedom, critical inquiry, and fair
play that are essential to effective education and a
functional democracy."

==========
4.
Labor Studies Faculty Targeted -- Compromising Academic
Freedom and Creating a Hostile Classroom Environment

AAUP general secretary Gary Rhoades today issued this
statement (American Association of University Professors)

April 28, 2011
For more information, please contact  Robert Kreiser.

http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/newsroom/2011PRs/Ancel.htm

Compromising Academic Freedom and Creating a Hostile
Classroom Environment

Washington, D.C. - Andrew Breitbart is on the attack again.
This time his targets are Judy Ancel, Director of the
Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Missouri,
Kansas City and her co-instructor in a labor studies class,
Don Giljum, an adjunct lecturer at the University of
Missouri, St. Louis. Breitbart has produced what purports to
be a damning video of the class Ancel and Giljum co-taught.
The video, selectively edited from more than thirty hours of
classroom footage, has already cost Giljum his job.

The video posted on Breitbart's BigGovernment website is
entitled "Thuggery 101: Union Official, Professor Teach How-
To College Course in Violent Union Tactics."  The violence
that is being done, however, is to the academic freedom and
employment security of the instructors, and to the privacy
and safe classroom environment of the students, some of whom
speak on the video clip.  When students voice their views in
class, they should not have to fear that their comments will
be spread all over the Internet.  When faculty members
rightly explore difficult topics in class, they should not
have to fear for their jobs or their lives. (Death threats
to the instructors have been posted on Breitbart's blog).

Quality education in a democracy requires the free and open
exchange of ideas by professors and students without fear of
retaliation.  It requires academic freedom.  And it requires
safe classroom environments.  Those commitments and
conditions are at the heart of the American Association of
University Professors' (AAUP) basic principles.

In his own words, in a recent appearance on the Sean Hannity
show, Andrew Breitbart indicated that he intends to "go
after" teachers and unions.  That is in keeping with a
current environment in which some politicians seek to make a
name for themselves by attacking the rights of working
people and the work of people whose inherent right (and
responsibility) it is to explore a variety of ideas.

Breitbart has a right to voice his views; he does not have a
right to his own facts. He does not have a right to distort
the class in ways that are evident in the video clips and
that are detailed by Judy Ancel in her response to the
attack.  Neither does he have the right to trample on the
academic freedom of professors and their students, nor on
the privacy rights of students in their classroom work.

The AAUP denounces the actions of Andrew Breitbart as
compromising academic freedom, quality education, and the
rights of students to a safe classroom environment.  We call
on the University of Missouri, Kansas City, the University
of Missouri, St. Louis, and the University of Missouri
System to speak out clearly and forcefully in defense of the
rights of their professors and students.  And we call on all
people of reason in the academy and beyond to do likewise.

==========
5.
Statement of the Working Class Studies Association

Past presidents, the president, and the president-elect of the Working 
Class Studies Association have drafted and signed a strong statement of 
supportfor Judy Ancel and Don Giljum, labor educators under attack in a 
right-wing video campaign. A link to an account of the events and the 
statement are below.

peace, Dave Roediger

LINK:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/04/29/fallout_from_videos_of_labor_course_at_university_of_missouri

STATEMENT:

Dear Judy Ancel and Don Giljum,

As past-presidents, president, and president-elect of
the Working Class Studies Association, we write in
solidarity with you both during this time of attacks on
you, on free speech, and on the labor movement. We
support efforts to correct the record following Andrew
Breitbart's misleading mixing of decontextualized
quotes from your classrooms to create a video
caricaturing what occurs there and in labor education
generally.

We insist that classrooms in which the working class
and the labor movement are studied must be sites for
free exploration of all topics, however controversial
and subject to misrepresentation. We deplore the
gullibility, and in many cases the anti-labor political
agenda, that led media to give extravagant play to
Breitbart's mendacious video, especially given that he
has serially discredited himself with similar frauds,
particularly in the case of Shirley Sherrod. We are
appalled by the use of re-edited video tapes and
doctored quotes to make false accusations against you.
Such tactics could not only damage your careers, but
also are often designed to destroy sympathy and
identification with the labor movement. Stunts such as
Mr. Breitbart's can have a chilling effect, especially
among contingent faculty. We call upon faculty,
students, administrators and labor organizations to
condemn them.

Sherry Linkon (Past President)
Peter Rachleff (Past President)
Kitty Krupat (Past President)
David Roediger (Past President)
Michelle Tokarczyk (Past President)
Fred Gardaphe (President)
Nick Coles (President-Elect)

===
6.
What You Can Do

Send letters of support for Don Giljum to University of
Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor Thomas F. George,
<[log in to unmask]> and copy Deborah Baldini, Associate
Dean for Continuing Education, <[log in to unmask]>.

Denounce their forced resignation of Don with no
investigation, no due process and violation of academic
freedom. Call for his reinstatement and rehiring in future
semesters.

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