Statements

2023

The Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) expresses its unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian people that are facing Israeli occupation and an ongoing genocidal war. Since October 7th, over 18,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and the Israeli government has overtly expressed intent to “destroy the Palestinian people under occupation”. The UN Secretary General has called this an “unparalleled and unprecedented” level of civilian death compared to any other conflict since he became Secretary-General in 2017.

As scholars committed to justice we stand against all forms of racism and discrimination, including Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and anti-semitism, and we stand in solidarity with colleagues and students who are grieving as a consequence of the current situation. We appeal to scholars across the world to take a stand for social justice and human liberation, and speak out against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and against the genocide of the Palestinian people. We stand in solidarity with the millions across the world that are already expressing their support for Palestine in an environment that is particularly hostile towards Palestinians and pro-Palestine voices. 

Heterodox economics crucially involves uncovering and challenging unequal power relations, including those related to class, colonialism, imperialism, race and gender. As such, heterodox economists have often challenged the alleged neutrality of the dominant political and economic order, which tends to be cloaked in language of neutrality and reason despite its implicit (and at times explicit) support for oppression, exploitation and subjugation. It is the task of us as critical scholars to expose and challenge the power relations that support oppressive structures and stand on the side of the oppressed. In this current moment, this means exposing and challenging the colonial, imperial, and racial power structures that have enabled this latest intensification of genocide against the Palestinian people since October 7th and the long-standing occupation and colonisation of Palestine since the establishment of the Israeli settler colonial state. While we stand firmly against the war crimes and genocide being committed by Israel right now, we also recognize with 15 Palestinian Higher Education Institutions that it is crucial to place these measures within the wider framework of the occupation of Palestine and blockade on Gaza, which have long denied Palestinians national and political rights,  “including the right to exist, resist, return, and most importantly the right to self-determination.”

Heterodox economists know all too well that material, intellectual, and discursive power imbalances create a hegemony that defines how the world is reported and understood in the social sciences and the media. It is of particular relevance that the current hegemony is tilted in favor of Western imperialism and Israeli colonizing forces and against the recognition of Palestinians’ right to exist, resist, and be free. In this political climate, it becomes critically important to stand against misinformation that serves the oppressors, to contribute to scrutinizing, exposing, and challenging both the material and the discursive power imbalance at play, and to stand with the brave scholars, activists, and journalists across the world – including in Palestine itself – that are risking their jobs and lives as they uncover, report, and fight against occupation and genocide. 

As a community of scholars we condemn the severe destruction of universities in Gaza and the murder of hundreds of staff and students by Israeli forces. The Palestinian Ministry of Higher Education last reported on 5 November that 446 students enrolled in universities and colleges in Palestine have been killed by Israel (438 in the Gaza Strip and eight in the West Bank) in addition to 14 employees working in higher educational institutions in the Gaza Strip, including Dr. Refaat Alareer and Dr. Sufyan Tayeh. Overall, 14 Palestinian higher education institutions have been partially damaged or completely destroyed (12 in the Gaza Strip and 2 in the West Bank) by Israeli military attacks. While the universities in the West Bank switched to online learning from October 9th, the universities on the Gaza Strip have been paralyzed by the lack of electricity, lack of stable internet, and the need of staff members and students to prioritize survival. As such, all universities in the Gaza Strip have ceased to operate

We support the call from academics at Birzeit University for international academic institutions to take action to stop the genocide and occupation of Palestine. We aspire to meet their call on us to “fulfill [our] intellectual and academic duty of seeking truth, maintaining a critical distance from state-sponsored propaganda, and to hold the perpetrators of genocide and those complicit with them accountable.” We also strongly support the statements made by the Birzeit University Union of Professors and Employees, the statement from Palestinian Trade Union coalition Workers in Palestine, and the call from 15 Palestinian Higher Education institutions, who have called on the international community of workers and/or university employees to stand against genocide and occupation, and we support the position taken by groups such as Na’Amod: British Jews Against Occupation, who state that “our liberation is bound up with the liberation of others, rather than in competition. We do not need to oppress others to feel safe, and [we] work to build bridges and stand in solidarity against all systems of racism and discrimination.” 

In line with our support for fellow workers and academics, and as scholars committed to the universal freedom of all people regardless of race, religion or identity, we call for: 

  • An immediate ceasefire in Palestine.
  • The lifting of Israel’s siege of Gaza.
  • Immediate entry into Gaza of sufficient amounts of aid and life-saving humanitarian needs (including water, food, fuel, medicine). 
  • Clear positions that reject any ethnic cleansing.
  • A dismantling of the apartheid state of Israel and the establishment of a democratic future for all, where everyone is free regardless of race, religion and other identities.
  • An end to the global complicity with the Israeli occupation. As academics, this includes heeding the call by Palestinian trade unions for university workers and students worldwide “to uncover if your university has investments, contracts or cooperation agreements with weapons; companies supplying Israel, call them out and organising to cancel them”.
  • An end to discrimination in all forms, including Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and anti-Palestinian racism.
  • Support for academic freedom and freedom of expression globally, including expressions in support of Palestine.

AHE Management Committee,  December 18th, 2023

2022

AHE Solidarity with the University College Union The Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) stands in strong solidarity with colleagues facing significant cuts to their pensions in the wake of the decision taken by Universities UK on Wednesday February 23rd. These mentioned cuts could slash pensions by one third for an average academic. AHE also condemns the reduction in real pay, increased precariousness, increased workloads, and unfair racial and gendered pay gaps across the UK higher education sector over the past decade, which makes up the other parts of the ongoing industrial dispute in UK higher education. The promotion of heterodox and pluralist economic ideas becomes increasingly difficult in a context where basic labour conditions are deteriorating and the higher education sector is deepening the structures that make it most likely that those already in a privileged position are able to succeed. We therefore stand firmly with the University and College Union in this dispute and call on the Universities UK, as well as individual higher education institutions across the country, to take their demands seriously. For anyone unsure how to help, you can donate to the UCU fighting fund to help support colleagues who lose pay when on strike.

2021

The Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE) stands in strong solidarity with colleagues facing redundancies due to neoliberal restructuring during this pandemic. One particularly horrifying example of this, is what is going on at Leicester University, where 145 colleagues are currently under threat of redundancy by the university management. The university’s poorly defined and justified proposal to “disinvest” from Critical Management Studies and Political Economy is a blatant attack on academic freedom, a disservice to the university’s international reputation in these fields, and an offense to their current and future students.

For decades have our colleagues at Leicester University been dedicated to collegiality, interdisciplinarity, pluralism and the highest scholarly standards in their fields; principles for which they have earned far-reaching respect and acknowledgement in the intellectual community, and which the AHE strongly endorses.

AHE Managment Commitee 8.2.2021

2020

The Association for Heterodox Economics expresses its solidarity with all those fighting for justice against racism and inequality in the US, the UK and across the world. We are against all forms of discrimination and racism, including having a zero tolerance for institutionalised racism, often supported by and supporting economic structures.

As an international association with members from all over the world, we take pride in including voices of those excluded from mainstream organisations in our research and activities, while we remain committed to challenging institutionalized racism in all its forms within the field of economics, and society as a whole. We also recognize that we must also set an example with our actions in our respective areas- academia, the economics profession- and as responsible citizens. AHE aims to contribute to economic inquiry and policy analysis on inequality and its causes, in order to improve the lives of those who face discrimination. Furthermore this urges us to denounce in the strongest terms racism, and all forms of bias and human rights abuses globally. We will not rest until we have helped to ensure that the opportunity for all children during their lives is equal for all the communities of the world.

We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with African Americans and the larger Black community and we condemn all anti-Black racism as well as the lack of economic, social and life opportunity and the lack of health and safety that this brings.

In solidarity,

Association for Heterodox Economics

black lives matter, protest, demonstration

 

2020

A key purpose of the Association for Heterodox Economics (AHE), in conjunction with the wider heterodox community, is the search for a more robust explanation of economic realities. The current Covid-19 pandemic has led to fundamental challenges for our economic system, creating substantial uncertainty and increased need for a reliable economic science that can help us understand the changes, and guide decision-makers towards effective policy.

While heterodox economists have long recognized the limits of market mechanisms in allocating resources efficiently and fairly, COVID19 makes these limits particularly clear. This has led both corporations and the government to intervene in the economy, for example through major expenditures on income support, the direction of production — either by decree or by moral suasion, instructions on how, what and when to consume, and the identification of strategically vital sectors which are characteristic of a major planning role for the government in the economy. The naming of key workers, many of whom are amongst the lowest paid, suggests that we need to rethink how we value labour in society. The insecurity that derives from flexible labour markets has also been fully exposed during the pandemic. The problems associated with the high inequalities produced by long standing government policies, biased towards corporations and against workers, are now becoming evident.

The abandoning of economic orthodoxy, when faced with real world health problems of unprecedented scope, and the marshalling of resources to directly address problems, reveals a pragmatic approach by the government. With the stroke of a Treasury pen, it has become clear that the pre-crisis claims by the government that there is no alternative to austerity, homelessness, poverty and inequality were false. That homelessness can be eradicated in days, hospitals built in 2 weeks, labour furloughed not sacked, demonstrates these arguments of ‘necessity’ are actually choices. In light of this, we hope that once the pandemic is overcome, there will be a recognition of the choices it is possible to make. One view may again prescribe austere futures, but that is one choice and there are many others. If we have been able to quickly address the health crisis, we can as quickly address the climate crisis if we choose to do so; in fact, a dramatic consequence of the efforts to halt the pandemic have been a great slow-down in carbon emissions. To make informed choices for our futures we need to open the door to the broad and growing body of theory that proposes more realistic and just solutions to the resourcing problems.

Heterodox schools of thought allow for dynamics and are aware of the inherent instability of the capitalist system. In studying economics, AHE members consider power, complex systems/feedback, law, planning, and ethics/equity. Many of these ideas are employed in mainstream economics, but normally only in an adjunct manner. The AHE proposes that a new debate about economics is now vital, galvanised by the current pandemic, in which new ideas about resilience and equity are placed to the forefront.