Defying Right-Wing Smear Campaign, Ray Luc Levasseur to Speak at UMass!

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From friends involved in organizing to bring Ray Luc Levasseur to Amherst, Mass.:

November 10, 2009

For Immediate Release

A talk and forum on “The Great Western Massachusetts Sedition Trial: Twenty Years Later” will be held on Thursday November 12 at 7:15 p.m. at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in School of Management Room 137. Participants will include Ray Luc Levasseur and members of the 1989 Springfield sedition trial defense team.

The sponsoring UMass departments and organizations do so because of their commitment to free speech and academic freedom.

Sponsoring departments include:

• Communication Department*
• Economics Department
• History Department
• Department of Languages, Literatures, and Culture
• Social Thought and Political Economy Program
• Sociology Department
• Sociology Graduate Student Association
• Student Government Association Executive
• Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies Program

The event is also sponsored by the following non-profit community organizations, foundations, and businesses: the Rosenberg Fund for Children, Food for Thought Books, Vermont Action for Political Prisoners, and the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities.

Several UMass departments have added their support to this event in the name of protecting the cherished American values of freedom of speech and academic freedom, which they believed to be threatened by the decision to cancel the event under pressure from a variety of outside organizations. Sponsors’ support for this event should in no way be construed as an endorsement of Levasseur, his political beliefs, or any of his past activities.

For further information, contact sedition.trial@gmail.com.

*In the service of instructing student reporters, the Journalism Program in the Department of Communication does not sponsor political guests and is not co-hosting Levasseur's visit to UMass.

At the same time, worth mentioning that a facebook page has been set up, entitled "Let Ray Have His Say", to protest the event's cancellation. Please join if you are interested.