Please sign this petition, calling for the restoration of Dr Rick Kuhn’s honorary status at the Australian National University.* As a life member of the National Tertiary Education Union, he has, most recently, been outspokenly involved in campaigns against the attacks on university workers’ pay, conditions and job security across the Australian higher education sector.
We the undersigned call on the Australian National University to restore the honorary status of Dr Rick Kuhn and therefore his full access to the University’s library resources. This will enhance his ability to continue his research and publishing activity, and to contribute to the international scholarly and ANU communities.
Unique skills and expertise are the basis of Rick’s  international reputation. One of the most prominent scholars working on Marxist theory in Australia, he won the international Deutscher Prize in 2007. He is currently the editor and co-translator of the 2,500 page, four volume, project of Henryk Grossman’s works, for each of which he has written substantial introductions. The first two volumes have been written and manuscripts of the last two have been prepared.
Rick has published extensively on the history, policies and sociology of the Australian Labor Party, ALP governments, the broader Australian labour moment and Australia’s political economy, as well as writing about Marxist theory, German and Austrian politics. Recent articles, entries in reference works and introductions to other books have evaluated aspects of Grossman’s life and work. He has also contributed articles and commentary – on fascism, Israel/Palestine, antisemitism, union issues, the ALP and health policy – to the daily and specialist press and other mass media.
Over 33 years, the ANU has benefitted from Rick’s paid and, since retirement, unpaid labour in research and publishing, teaching and public commentary. This labour has been sustained despite a period of chemotherapy and during his current condition of partial remission from Multiple Myeloma, which has significantly reduced his life expectancy.
Rick also has decades of experience as an activist and unpaid organiser in a wide range of social movements and campaigns, including the union movement, campaigns for LGBTIQ and women’s rights, in solidarity with the struggles of Aborigines and the Palestinians, as well as the anti-war and peace movements. This involvement has provided many insights of academic relevance.
The trivial sum saved by not renewing Dr Kuhn’s honorary status cannot justify the harm it has done to the ANU’s and international scholarly enterprise.

* Shortly after this petition was initiated, ANU management condescended to grant Rick access to the university library for a few years. It still does not acknowledge his continuing scholarly achievement over decades or provided access to other university facilities associated with honorary status, which would aid his research.

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