My Activism at Harvard
by John Spritzler
June 17, 2026
Recently a friend of mine and I were talking about a professor who purported to be some kind of radical and the question arose as to whether a professor could get away with expressing radical ideas and still have a successful career in academia. Here is something I wrote to my friend about my own experience when I was employed as a senior research scientist (after my last promotion) at the Harvard School of Public Health (since re-named the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) for twenty years ending with my retirement in 2012.
Regarding your: "It would be professional suicide for Clara M. to state for the record that she supports "removing the rich from power so we can have real and not fake democracy...and create an egalitarian society" :
When I was a senior research scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health I stated for the record (on my PDRBoston.org website that I told people about at work) that I supported "removing the rich from power so we can have real and not fake democracy with no rich and no poor...and create an egalitarian society." I did not get fired. I even got promoted. At the same time I was collecting signatures at the School for the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees and condemning Zionism.
I even embarrassed the Dean of Academic Affairs with my mass leafletting (read the leaflet here, PDF) against Zionism, as you can read about here (it's actually pretty funny.)
The Harvard higher-ups knew I had a lot of support from students and employees of the Harvard School of Public Health, and for that reason they decided it was best not to persecute me for my activism.
Here is another example from 2002 of how I got away with radical activism as an academic: denouncing Bill Gates at the conference at which he was the keynote speaker. Because I had the support of many of my colleagues, the conference organizers were forced to readmit me after they expelled me from the conference!
I don't think academics should use the fear of persecution as an excuse for not saying we need an egalitarian revolution and that Zionism is morally wrong.
I neglected to add the following to my words above:
While employed at Harvard I organized the collection of signatures on the School's campus in 2006 for a statement in support of the Palestinian refugees Right of Return. We collected 152 signatures (see one page of signatures and the statement below.) Later on I gave them to a person on the first Gaza Flotilla (in 2010) to give to people in Gaza to let them know they had support from ordinary Americans for their Right of Return. Unfortunately that Gaza Flotilla was never allowed by the Israeli navy to reach Gaza.
