The International Congress of Mathematicians, the mathematicians’ quadrennial monster conference, is scheduled to be held in July, in Philadelphia. Given the current American madness and, in particular, the viciousness of Trump’s Brownshirts, the scheduling of this international event in America is of great concern to a great many people. And, as usual, the opposition arising from this very reasonable concern is a mess.
A bit over a month ago, an open letter was launched, calling for a boycott of the ICM. The open letter is idiotic: needlessly broad and incendiary, and replete with lefty dog whistles. The letter has now been signed by a couple thousand mathematicians, which may be impressive but which almost certainly missed out on many thousand more, and needlessly so. That’s the way of the modern left: never let the core purpose and the possibility of collegiality and cooperation dissuade one from indulging in a holier than thou rant.
Nonetheless, Trump’s America is a huge problem and the ICM is a problem, and plenty of more level-headed mathematicians have been expressing concern. The Australian Mathematical Society has now also done so, albeit meekly and quietly.
Last week, the Council of the AustMS passed a resolution, calling for the International Mathematics Union, the organisers of the ICM, to “reconsider” Philadelphia as the host city for the ICM. The text is below, a letter to the IMU signed by the President of AustMS. This resolution was passed by an underwhelming majority, which is perhaps why the resolution is so tepid, and why the AustMS has stuck the resolution on their advocacy page but seemingly not bothered to give the thing any higher prominence.
Whatever. Of course what a few thousand weirdo mathematicians do or don’t do matters to almost no one, least of all to Trump and his goons. Still, a principled stand is supposed to at least attempt to contribute in some manner, and to give the good feeling of that attempted contribution. There’s not much to celebrate here.
To the International Mathematics Union,
The Australian Mathematical Society calls upon the IMU to reconsider Philadelphia in the USA as host venue for the 2026 ICM due to potential difficulties for international delegates to obtain visas to attend, the potential risks to international delegates arising from the activities of the USA’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, and the potential dangers arising from the involvement of the host nation in current warfare.
ICM should consider Bendigo as the host venue.