It is still a little early to assess the strange decision of the editorial director of Presses Universitaires de France (PUF), Paul Garapon, to "abandon" (information to booksellers) the publication of a book, In the face of woke obscurantism, but we would like to quickly recall the facts and give a voice to colleagues who were victims of this decision by providing links to their speeches and recent interventions in the media.
In the spring of 2022, Paul Garapon suggested to Xavier-Laurent Salvador, Nathalie Heinich, and Pierre Vermeren, all three members of what was still called the Observatory of Decolonialism, that they coordinate a work that would be a "manifesto against Wokism." The three of them set to work, with Nathalie Heinich giving way to Emmanuelle Hénin, recruited a total of 22 co-authors, and submitted their manuscript to the publisher at the end of summer 2024. Everything was ready, the work corrected, proofread, and validated, ready to go to print for distribution to booksellers and go on sale on April 9.
On March 10, barely a month before the scheduled release, the publisher decided, without even having the delicacy to inform the co-directors who learned of it by email at 13:50 p.m. (i.e. 10 minutes before the article was published online New Obs and 15 minutes before that of Libération very well informed), that the timing was bad, that "the context [was] very unfavorable to the publication of the work"... and that the book would not be published. The publisher's email emphasizes the fact that "the support of Pierre-Édouard Stérin's Pericles project for the Observatory of University Ethics" makes its publication difficult: this support from Pierre-Édouard Stérin for the Common Good was known to the publisher, but above all it does not commit the authors who did voluntary work, the preparation of the manuscript having not given rise - like so many university works - to any transaction, advance, or subsidy. Better still, the co-directors had requested that the royalties be paid to the Observatory of University Ethics, which is the organ of the LAIC (Laboratory for the Analysis of Contemporary Ideologies), itself a "1901 law" association recognized as being of public utility. And let us emphasize that the editorial board of the Observatory has not never received the slightest request, the slightest suggestion, the slightest injunction from the Common Good Fund.
Let us also remember that PUF is a private company that certainly has the right to publish according to its choices. But this choice to cancel at the last minute a work commissioned by the publisher from the authors is surprising! Would associations receiving a subsidy, from whatever source, no longer have the right to publish (especially when half of the authors are not members in this case)? What is this censorship? Could the imprecations of a historian from the Collège de France against the publication of this book by PUF on Friday, March 7 be the origin of this cowardice on the part of the publisher? In fact, it seems that the cause should be sought, not in the subsidies received by the LAIC, but in the fact that it fights against woke deviations in the academic world, particularly in France, and against breaches of scientific ethics... and that Trump is also fighting against wokeness in American universities, which we have repeatedly said is sinking huge sums into questionable ideological support and has been serving for eighteen months as a screen for anti-Semitism...
So, the fact that we appear, on one point, to agree with a measure emanating from the most grotesque president the United States has given itself in almost 250 years is enough to disqualify us? It is at the very least surprising that our thoughtful and long-standing commitments, based on solid analyses and an unwavering defense of science in the face of ideological obscurantism, are put on the same level as the brutal measures of a Ubu Roi president whose only objective is electoralism. Let us not worry: this prior censorship has earned us countless supports, our three coordinators have been invited by numerous media outlets, and several publishers have offered to take over. Yes, the work will be published; no, we will not give up and we will continue our fight against identitarianism and communitarianism, placing universalism at the highest level of human values.
***
Here are links to some of the presentations by the book's coordinators:
Pierre Vermeren: The PUF commissioned the book and chose its title three years ago. But faced with pressure from historian Patrick Boucheron, a member of the Collège de France, who threatened to shame these publishers if the book were published, the PUF canceled our book to "save the publishing house," they told us.
*
The Incorrect, interview with Emmanuelle Henin by Marc Obregon, March 11, 2025.
We show how these ideologies influence all disciplines, the history of science, literature, but also the hard sciences and medicine – biomedicine, oncology, psychoanalysis.
*
Europe 1, interview with Xavier-Laurent Salvador, March 12 2025,
The Presses Universitaires de France contacted the press before informing us that our work had been suspended and withdrawn.
The trial we are facing is a trial based on a leaflet: it is the cover that is being criticized.
I suspect that in the hushed corridors of the Collège de France, we don't see the reality of the university.
*
Atlantic. Interview with Pierre Vermeren. March 13, 2025
A large proportion of self-proclaimed progressives are neither democratic in spirit nor democratic in practice. They want freedom of speech to impose their ideas, not to engage in dialogue. There is therefore a "desire for criminal justice" since they threaten with lawsuits and disqualification those who do not think like them.
*
We gave the floor to real scientists, that is, to people who work in the fields of genetics, biology, medicine, etc.
*
Le Figaro, interview with Emmanuelle Henin, March 14, 2025
Better to be a useful idiot than a harmful idiot.
Our censors discredit themselves because they blacklist a book of which they have only read the title.
*
Facing Bock-Côté, broadcast on March 15, 2025, with Emmanuelle Henin
The new thing is that we are told: "We haven't read your book, but it's fascist."
