Cedric de Leon

@prof-deleon.bsky.social

Prof of Sociology & Labor Studies UMass Amherst https://cedricdeleon.wixsite.com/mysite

Pro tip: if you ever get the chance to hear @prof-deleon.bsky.social give a talk, sprint to it. He is an amazing speaker, incredible scholar, and all around great human. Thanks for the great talk and congratulations on the book prize Prof de Leon!

Barry Eidlin@eidlin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It was great to reconnect with @prof-deleon.bsky.social at the @cawls-acets.bsky.social meeting in Winnipeg. Not only did we get to catch up & strategize together, but he got to pick up his hardware for the Leo Panitch Book Prize, & deliver the keynote. A true friend, colleague, and comrade ✊❤️

Listen to "Unionism Drives Community!" on WPFW 89.3 FM Thurs., April 23 at 5 pm to hear UMass Amherst Sociology and Labor Studies @prof-deleon.bsky.social discuss how participation of BIPOC in unions and leadership can impact rank-and-file democracy, union strength, and working-class power.

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BIG NEWS! Over 500 sociologists have signed on to commit to BOYCOTT the ASA meeting - no registration fees, no hotel rentals - if Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Israel is not put BACK on the ballot! Leadership has made a huge misstep: MANY sociologists questioning their continued membership.

Profoundly angered by letter that the @asanews.bsky.social President and Executive Director sent to the membership. To blame colleagues for membership decline and shut down democratic processes on matters of genocide in times of authoritarian expansion is astonishing.

Sociologists for Palestine@soc4pal.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Sociologists for Palestine have asked members to send us the letters they have written to @asanews.bsky.social. We are sharing them here as evidence of how unpopular this decision is with the ASA membership. Please amplify this thread & any letters that resonate with your position.

Joel Andreas wrote, "Were you ashamed while you were writing this blatantly misleading and anti-democratic message? The resolution proposed by the membership petition is clearly about a public policy issue... You may be opposed to it, but that is for the membership, not the two of you to decide."

Dear Professors Washington and Correll,
Were you ashamed while you were writing this blatantly misleading and anti-democratic message? The resolution proposed by the membership petition is clearly about a public policy issue, like many issues on which the ASA has previously taken a stand. You may be opposed to it, but that is for the membership, not the two of you to decide.
Sincerely,
Joel Andreas
Professor of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University

Florence Castillo writes "Thank you for this update as it solidifies the position of ASA to bury it's head in the sand while using the language of policy and governance. This clarification from the communications team is timely, and I will not waste my money to renew a membership with ASA."

Hello,
Thank you for this update as it solidifies the position of ASA to bury it's head in the sand while using the language of policy and governance. This clarification from the communications team is timely, and I will not waste my money to renew a membership with ASA.
Dr. Florence Castillo

David Purucker writes to ASA leadership that he supports the petition because, "the question of Israel-Palestine is the Vietnam of our time. It is the issue ... about which our children will ask: what did you do, when you had the chance? This is ... a pressing issue of global survival."

"Dear Heather,
As a signatory to the petition and a member of Sociologists for Palestine, I disagree vigorously with this message.
I would ask you a few simple questions. In 1968, do you think you would have opposed the war on Vietnam? If you were a member of the ASA at that time, would you have sided with the bold minority of young sociologists who insisted that their professional organization take a stand on the defining issue of the day? And could you honestly say today that that minority of radicals was not proven correct in the judgment of history?
I support the petition because I feel that the question of Israel-Palestine is the Vietnam of our time. It is the issue by which posterity will judge us, the issue about which our children will ask: what did you do, when you had the chance? This is not just because of the moral imperative to stop the ongoing genocide of Palestine. It is a pressing issue of global survival. I feel certain that the catastrophe of the Iran war would never have happened if Israel had not been treated with such impunity for its grave crimes since 2023 (and indeed before).
This is not an academic matter for sociologists. A world dominated by militarism, genocide, and economic crisis is not one that will be friendly to any forms of critical thought. There is a profound connection between the question of Israel-Palestine and the assault upon academic freedom which ASA and other learned societies have —to their credit — resisted. At this point I don't know how this can be denied. There is a deep contradiction between defending academic freedom, on the one hand, and clamping down on it within our organization, on the other.
Under such conditions, "unity" can only be achieved through open dialogue, debate, and indeed democratic conflict, in every domain of civil society
- including our profession. It cannot be achieved through bureaucratic recourse and weak talk of "inclusion." The fact that we have a diverse, inclusive discipline at all is the…

In her letter, Sadia Saeed writes of her "deep disappointment" that our organization refuses to live up to its mission of "positive social change" explaining "The proposed petition asking for a boycott of Israeli institutions is a very small step in this direction."

Dear ASA Council,
I write to express my deep disappointment at your decision to discard an important petition that has already garnered significant support among the ASA community. I believe it has a real chance to garner the requisite votes and shape ASA's future policy direction should it be put to vote.
Your decision to not put the petition to vote on the grounds that it constitutes an operational/governance matter is far from obvious. Numerous academic associations have undertaken precisely the measures that the current petition is advocating. Clearly, for these associations, the matter isn't one of governance but of taking a political, ethical and moral position on a public policy issue. Undoubtedly, these associations determined that the benefits of adopting an ethical stance outweighed the costs. Given this, we can reasonably hold that your invocation of ASA bylaws is wide open to interpretation.
The Israeli government (with the complicity of its U.S. counterpart) has perpetrated what numerous experts and bodies (not least Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch) have unequivocally termed a genocide. Israel, along with the U.S., is now engaged in unprovoked aggression in Iran and Lebanon that has already killed thousands of innocent civilians. As an association based in the U.S. with a stated mission of driving "positive social change", it is imperative that it take a position - if its members agree, of course - on issues that are going to shape not only the U.S. but the world for generations to come. The proposed petition asking for a boycott of Israeli institutions is a very small step in this direction. As scholars, we know that such boycotts were absolutely critical in building transnational solidarity and ending apartheid in South Africa.
This morning, I received an email from ASA with the subject line "Your ASA Membership and the Power of Sociology". I am struck by the contradiction: upholding the strength and relevance of sociology while taking aw…