Defend the Friedman pie-er

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--The activist community here received a rude shock on May 15 when Brown University announced that it would expel radical student activist Molly Little for the fall 2008 semester.

Molly was one of two students who threw pies at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at his April 22 lecture at Brown in protest of Friedman's "sickeningly cheery applause for free market capitalism's conquest of the planet," according to flyers distributed at the event.

A YouTube video of the pie-ing received more than 80,000 views as of mid-May. Friedman was not injured, and no legal charges were pressed. Although Friedman resumed his lecture after five minutes, the campus newspaper absurdly attacked Molly for denying Friedman's "free speech."

Unfortunately, this argument was repeated by some in the activist community as well. This relies on ripping the question of "free speech" out of any social context--as if a left-wing student enjoyed the same avenues of expression as a multimillionaire syndicated columnist spouting the conventional wisdom of the mainstream press. This false debate on principles also tended to obscure the real principle of unconditional solidarity against institutional reprisals.

But Brown's overreaction appears to have clarified the issue, however, with most concluding that the expulsion is a political attack. A solidarity campaign has started with an online petition, and organizers are planning next steps.

Although an appeal is difficult in Brown's bureaucratic "legal system," there appear to be grounds. Activists will have to unite and fight hard to reverse a damaging blow to the student movement.