<nettime> Call for Solidarity

Dear Nettime,

I write with some urgent news – the four editors of the journal DOXA were arrested yesterday in Russia. The crime they've been charged with the corruption of the youth for a video that encouraged students to protest without fear. The issue is serious enough that even the president's office made a comment about it today. The agency that went after them is Russia's Roskomnadzor, its federal internet and telecommunications authority. And they have been restricted to house arrest and ordered not to access electronic communication. But the issue is rather cut and dried: it is clearly a crude attempt to silence them as social critics.

If you are so moved, I would kindly ask you to sign and circulate the solidarity statement, which DOXA will use to support their cause. You can sign it at tiny.cc/DOXAsolidarity

Best,

Andrew

In the early morning of April 14th, 2021, the four editors of the journal DOXA were arrested by Russian authorities. Armen Aramyan, Natasha Tyshkevich, Volodya Metelkin and Alla Gutnikova appeared in court later that day. The purpose of the charges were made clear by the judge – to silence critics – who ordered the editors to house arrest and has restricted them from all electronic communication.

DOXA is a Russian student-run popular journal dedicated to critiques of the modern university. They have served as a clearinghouse for disseminating radical philosophy, especially feminist, Marxist, and anarchist voices. It also hosts editorials about the sprawling Russian university system, highlights student protests, and organizes solidarity for students harassed for speaking out.

The charges against the editors are preposterous. DOXA had posted a rather innocent video urging others to protest without fear and that expelling students for political reasons was unlawful. In response, the Russian communications authority Roskomnadzor demanded they remove the video. DOXA complied and removed the video. Even then, the editors were charged under Article 151.2 of Russian law (“involvement of youth in activities that can be harmful to them”).

Perhaps there is some honor to being charged with the same crime as Socrates? Yet it is remarkable to suggest that university students need protection from DOXA. Only one who uses education to manufacture obedience outlaws critical thinking as self-harm. And it is no coincidence that laws like these are also used against social critics, queers, and migrants.

We, the undersigned, urge all charges to be dropped against the DOXA editors and that all harassment of students immediately cease.

Andrew Culp, Professor of Media History and Theory, California Institute of the Arts

Slavoj Žižek, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Sociology and Philosophy, University of Ljubljana

Dr. Jordan B. Kinder, Postdoctoral Fellow, McGill University

Emanuela Bianchi, Associate Professor, New York University

Etienne R. Balibar, Anniversary Chair of Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University, London

Tiziana Terranova, Associate Professor Sociology of Communication and Culture, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane e Sociali, Università di Napoli L'Orientale, Italy

Judith Butler, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of California, Berkeley

Aleksandra Skowronska

John Michael Colón, Journalist

Geert Lovink, internet critic, Institute of Network Cultures

Kristiine Kikas, Junior Research Fellow

Bonnie Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor, Brown University

Philosophy Now

Jodi Dean, Professor, Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Albena Azmanova, Associate Professor of Politics, University of Kent

Lori Marso, Union College

James Martel, Professor, San Francisco State University

Brian Massumi, Professor of Communication (Retired), Université de Montréal

Fred Moten, Professor of Performance Studies, New York University

For more information:
1) https://doxajournal.ru/ (in Russian)
2) Chronology of Events (in English) https://open-assembly.calarts.edu/index.php/2021/04/14/doxa-chronology-of-events/

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Andrew Culp, PhD

Faculty, MA Program in Aesthetics and Politics

School of Critical Studies

California Institute of the Arts