Category Archives: activism

Activism and Its Critics

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

The migrant defense group that I work with, Resistencia en Acción, held a rummage sale the other day, raising $3,700 for migrants detained in a recent set of raids here in Princeton. That, by any measure, is a success. Think about what was involved in making it happen.

Someone had to conceive the idea, then convey it to others willing to help make it happen. Tasks had to be divided up, and people had to be held to keeping whatever promises of assistance they made. The organizers had to find a space within which to hold the event. They had to acquire several roomfuls of items to sell, then go to the space they’d acquired and arrange the items there. The space in question was a set of rooms in a church, not presently set up for a rummage sale. So that had to be set up. “That had to be set up” is elliptical for hours of work too tedious to describe: the space in question was the size of small house; anyone who’s moved homes, even from one apartment to another, knows what’s involved. Continue reading →

Kiosks and Cowardice

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, cancel culture, Fatwas, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity

I wrote this in May, but forgot to post it. I happened to notice it today while cleaning out old files. It seems a fitting start to the academic year.

In Princeton, where I live, there are two kiosks on Nassau Street, the main drag, on which people put up up flyers of various sorts, sometimes announcements of cultural events, sometimes flyers of a more political nature. Most but not all of the political flyers tend to the left of the political spectrum, and some of these target either the municipality or the University. The kiosks are deeply resented by elites at both institutions, who regard them, with predictable hauteur, as “eyesores.” Despite determined public opposition, the local town council has voted to demolish the kiosks and replace them with something that it can (in the words of one proponent) “control.”

They’re still there for now. The stated rule governing them is that flyers are taken down on the first of every month. Today is the 22nd of May. And yet, as I walked through town this morning and then this evening, I found all of the flyers systematically taken down on both kiosks. Continue reading →

Is It Time to Bomb Columbia University?

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, cancel culture, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

I had a conversation the other day with a friend who just started law school at Columbia. This person told me that on the first day of orientation, the first-year law students were visited by officials from Columbia’s so-called Office of Institutional Equity (OIE). According to OIE, the chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free,” is presumptively to be understood as advocacy of genocide, as discrimination against Jews, and therefore as a violation of Title VI. Anyone who chants it thereby becomes a candidate for reprimand, suspension, and/or expulsion. So they were instructed not to chant it. A couple of things can be said about this, I think. Continue reading →

The Mikie Sherrill Sweatbox

Posted on by under activism, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

I saw this on Facebook just now. The “her” is Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for Governor of New Jersey. To my regret, I volunteered for her 2017-2018 campaign for Congress (along with Chelsea Handler and a bunch of other idiots), and avidly promoted her here at PoT.

It reminds me of a scene in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s 1990 film, “Lionheart.” Legionnaire Lyon Gauthier is a lowly private in the French Legion, stationed in North Africa, whose brother has just been put in the hospital by a gang attack in LA. (Naturally, the family doesn’t have health insurance.) On receiving this news, Gauthier tells his Nazi commanding officer that he “needs” to see his brother in LA. The officer responds:

You need what I tell you you need. And right now, I think you need two weeks’ hard labor.

That’s what voting for Mikie Sherrill is like, except that she’d be governor for four years, not two weeks. Continue reading →

“Not the Time for Cowardice”

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Statement of Sadaf Jaffer in support of a municipal resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act, Montgomery (NJ) Town Council, Sept. 4. 

Good evening,

As a former mayor and state legislator, I urge you to pass a resolution supporting the Immigrant Trust Act and to do everything in your power to ensure that our state assemblymembers Roy Freiman and Mitchelle Drulis cosponsor it as well. Continue reading →

Statement to Montgomery Town Council

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Montgomery Town Council
Sept. 4, 2025, 7 pm
100 Community Dr, Skillman, New Jersey

Hi, my name is Irfan Khawaja. I live in Princeton, but spend a fair bit of time here in Montgomery. I’m here to speak in favor of Montgomery’s passing a municipal-level resolution in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act, just as we’ve recently done in Princeton, and has been done in more than a dozen municipalities across the state. Continue reading →

Does Heterodox Academy Practice Institutional Neutrality?

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, pedagogy

The doctrine of institutional neutrality asserts that an institution ought not to make public pronouncements on matters of public controversy. It’s promoted most vigorously nowadays by organizations like Heterodox Academy, and by the 150 or so universities that have signed on to Heterodox Academy’s campaign. This gives rise to an oddly neglected question: does institutional neutrality apply to Heterodox Academy itself? Is Heterodox Academy itself bound by the doctrine of institutional neutrality? It’s not clear how to answer this question, or whether it can coherently be answered at all. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: Montgomery

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Notes on Migrant Justice

As readers of this blog know, I’ve been involved in Resistencia en Acción’s campaign for a municipal level resolution, in Princeton, in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act. The ultimate aim of the campaign for municipal-level ITA resolutions is, of course, passage of the Act itself. The idea is to exert pressure on the state legislature through the municipal councils on the premise that the council resolutions provide a multiplier effect for public opinion.

The precedent here is the state law now in effect prohibiting the use of single-use plastic bags in retail sales, which passed through a decade-long campaign of citizen advocacy via the passage of local ordinances and resolutions. Whatever you think about that particular law–some love it, some hate it–it provides proof of concept for the strategy behind the campaign for the ITA municipal resolutions.* Continue reading →

Resistance and Retaliation

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense

Notes on Migrant Justice

In two posts here, I’ve taken issue with the idea that Princeton’s recent passage of (or even mere discussion of) the ITA Resolution has induced ICE to raid the town and detain people. The basic premise behind this claim is that ICE operations target municipalities that express opposition to ICE. The further implication is that if you want to avoid ICE operations where you live, you have to tone down your public opposition to ICE, and adopt a “quiet” form of dissent. It can’t be stressed enough how dangerously out of touch with reality this claim is. If put into practice, it would mean the end of public opposition to ICE at a time when public opposition is clearly working, and is all we have. Continue reading →