1/ Quick thread around hiring boycotts of @UTLaw law students as a tactic in pressuring an intransigent administration hellbent on refusing to do the right thing.

As a general matter, there are multiple things happening at different scales. Any artificial duality is unhelpful. https://twitter.com/debbierachlis/status/1391503348889755650

2/ First, a quick note on the broader picture, which is the acceleration of the violent colonial dispossession of Palestinians from their rightful lands. You can nitpick about specifics but Palestinians have been continually dispossessed to around 15% of their historic lands.

3/ Despite the guarantees of international law, they have seen violation after violation, largely with impunity. Now, we are seeing what is happening with targeted evictions and brutal crackdowns in Sheikh Jarrah, the storming of Masjid Al-Aqsa.

4/ For Palestinians and those in solidarity with their long, excruciating plight, it is hard not to feel like one is approaching endgame. It is difficult to imagine not taking desperate measures, whatever it takes. If not now, then when? This is the context behind the boycott.

5/ And so when discussions about accountability arise (UofT leadership in this case), it is not *just* about academic freedom of one scholar, but rather denying the ability to research and educate on an ongoing human rights calamity and UofT's 3rd party complicity in this.

6/ Despite the @IHRP_UofT scandal having dragged on for 8 months, only with the @CAUT_ACPPU motion has it become a nationwide academic censure. But with the @NewYorker article, collective disgust is rising to the point where it is transforming into a full institutional boycott.

7/ It is here where finally the collective outrage at the administration has begun to outstrip the initial limited demands (apologize to and hire Azarova, make significant change to protect academic freedom and limit donor influence).

8/ Indeed, in trying to understand why the heck @UofT would rather watch its academic freedom burn rather than make a simple administrative pivot, it is becoming obvious that the university has transmogrified into an institution captured by authoritarianism and neoliberalism.

9/ This should not be surprising for people that have been tracking these trends at other global universities. The "free speech exception of Palestine" both provides the canary in the coal mine in terms of what cannot be said at a university while human rights atrocities occur.

10/ The authoritarian/neoliberal capture of universities and censorship of speech for those who challenge racism, sexism, & colonialism is exploding in US, as 13 states have introduced some form of gag order on teaching racial/gender justice concepts: https://www.aapf.org/truthbetold 

11/ Which now brings me to discussion about tactics. What is missing from the discourse is a robust analysis of these root causes, which results in people talking over each other or having an overly narrow analysis that ends up working at odds with collective solidarity.

12/ You certainly then should be able to emphasize with the lawyers who are trying to do whatever they can to draw attention and pushback against these atrocities while fascists are literally taking over the streets. The idea of a hiring boycott successfully escalates urgency.

13/ At the same time, as any good organizer knows, we need a robust analysis of power, tactics, as well as distributive consequences. There is a reason why unions form war chests before a strike. @IENatOISE reminds us to centre an equity analysis. https://twitter.com/jeffreyansloos/status/1390317115706597381?s=20

14/ And so therefore if we understand the key drivers of this crisis as authoritarian-corporatist capture of our universities, and the free speech exception to Palestine, our strategies when best conceived builds collective power to push back against all of them.

15/ For example, there is a legitimate danger of allies "punching down" on students, who themselves are the most economically and institutionally vulnerable to @UTLaw admin.

16/ The social justice oriented students most vocal and active in support of the censure have fought the administration time and again, yet are at the mercy of massive debts, limited job prospects, potential reprisal, and a broader mental health crisis at the university.

17/ There is also another irony which is the people who have been fighting and supporting Palestinian human rights tooth and nail at @UTLaw are really the ones most likely to apply to jobs in which those types of firms are boycotting, making the mental hit larger.

18/ It is for those reasons that I encourage folks to iteratively reflect on root causes, distributive consequences and vulnerability, while expanding the horizons of what can be achieved with this one-in-a-generation collective indignation at @UofT.

19/ Personally, I hope that concerned members of the bar re-direct critiques of individual actions towards some sort of collective organizing efforts to withdraw donations to @UTLaw and see the students as important partners, co-strugglers against common oppressions.

20/ Finally, I just want to acknowledge that we are truly in uncharted territory. No one knows wtf is happening. Where are you going? Why? And who walks with you?

If we are all on this long walk together to the promised land, then we need to take care of each other.