LAUSR

Abstract In engaging the popularity of “free speech” as a conservative battle cry in recent years, this article poses two questions: What particular conception of that demand does the right defend, and how should the left respond? Finding that conservatives have moved from a “negative” to a “positive” understanding of this freedom selectively applied, this article presents the consistent application of that positive understanding of free speech as a challenge to concentrations of power that conspire to privilege some speech over others. Turning to recent attempts by graduate students on North American campuses to unionize, the article attempts to ground a reading of union rights as free speech rights. Free speech is presented as a useful frame through which to think about political struggles more generally, though the article cautions against treating free speech as an invariably desirable principle.