At the Blog
On Monday, Darryl Li wrote about the political economy of artillery shells as a way to think about US imperialism. After analyzing how the US wields power by facilitating the circulation of 155mm artillery shells throughout the world, he reflects on the distinctive role that this particular weapon plays in Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Not only are they “Israel’s most photogenic weapons,” with everyone from school children to Mike Pence writing messages on them, they also serve as an ideal platform for delivering spectacles of destruction while providing alibis for Israel’s allies. As Li writes, “For Western audiences accustomed to technologically sanitized killing at arm’s length, the apparent haphazardness of artillery more readily registers as a sign of war, albeit a lopsided one, instead of genocide: a single shell can wipe out an entire family while many others may fail to kill anyone… It is a testament to the sheer asymmetry of violence that Israel – thanks to U.S. aid – can afford to not only engage in mass slaughter before a global audience without constraint, but to do so in a piecemeal fashion that obscures the murderousness of its intent in clouds of dust.”
On Thursday, we published a series of reflections from students organizers involved with the protests at Columbia, CUNY, NYU, and Yale. Their responses explain the demands behind these encampments, highlight the centrality of the issues to the LPE movement, share their perspectives on what has unfolded over past two weeks, and analyze the obstinate and frequently brutal responses by their universities. Worth a read!
In LPE Land
Over at the Roosevelt Institute, David Stein and Ira Regmi have a new brief on The Civil Rights Struggle for True Full Employment.
In Chartbook 279 (but #1 in our heart), Adam Tooze looks into the political economy of Columbia University.
At Critical Legal Thinking, Jessica Whyte, Goldie Osuri and Marina Velickovic put together a resource pack of the most important critical (legal) work on the on-going Gaza Genocide.
Cool CfP alert: Dollar Hegemony, State Sovereignty and International Order: an International Workshop, featuring Melinda Cooper, Jessica Whyte, Ntina Tzouvala, and other LPE favs. Abstracts due July 1st.
In the NYT, Aziz Rana argues that The Constitution Won’t Save Us From Trump.
A group of law faculty are circulating a letter against campus repression.
In the Nation, several Yale Law students describe the months-long effort by universities to smother pro-Palestinian activism.
A group of scholars and practitioners are circulating an open letter to corporations engaged with and in Israel about their responsibilities in light of Israel’s ongoing military operations in Gaza.
