not a police state - yet

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Mon Mar 24 10:08:27 PST 2003


The last item in the article is worth thinking about. It touches, I think, on the ways in which repression works on a democracy such as the U.S. (I don't know who this Rocovich is. In a similar context back in 1965, the Board chair who was making similar noises in Illinois happened to be also CEO of John Deere Inc.)

Throughout U.S. history repression has regularly been carried out by quasi-official and/or vigilante groupings, rather than through the formal police power of the stater. The American Legion in the 1920s for example. (The Chicago PD activity Justin reported on falls half-way between. The Commander knows it's illegal, but he also knows he can get away with it.)

When 'they' tried to get me back in 1970, the route was (1) At the time of Kent State, local construction employers gave their men a couple days off to go over to ISU, surround the flag to "protect" it, and make three demands on the University, one of which was to fire Cox. (2) The Board of Regents, apparently, ordered the University to fire me, but there happened to be a one-year interim president at the time who threatened to resign unless procedures were carried out. (3) A six-month "investigation" by a special faculty/administration committee finally decided I shouldn't be fired but merely warned. So I survived, though for about 15 years in a status that I labelled that of a "tenured temp." Not all faculty (and not many not on tenure) around the u.s. did. Yet there was never any formal state repression.

Carrol

Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Chronicle of Higher Education - web daily - March 24, 2003
>
> But John G. Rocovich, head of the Board of Visitors, said that he did
> not regret the board's having approved the measure and that he does
> not rule out the possibility of introducing a similar policy at a
> later meeting. "The idea, as a general proposition, is still a good
> one," he said.
>



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