Dear antiwar activists and friends,
From our first issue in February 2002, War Times/Tiempo de Guerras has been designed as a tool to help on-the-ground organizers bring an accessible antiwar, anti-racist message to a broad audience. Initial response to the project was far more enthusiastic than we anticipated. Activists in all 50 states, DC and Puerto Rico signed on to distribute the paper. Hundreds of people sent in financial contributions. As a result, through early 2004 we were able to publish 16 issues and distribute an average of 100,000 copies per issue. And we raised over $325,000, enough to cover printing/shipping expenses and pay one full-time and one-part time members of our otherwise all-volunteer staff.
Realities at home and abroad have changed in important ways since War Times/Tiempo de Guerras was launched however. In early 2002 and for a long period after, the paper was one of a very few voices trying to bring its anti-"war on terrorism" message to broad popular constituencies. Today Washington's policy in Iraq and elsewhere, and President Bush's defense of it in particular, is challenged on an hourly basis by the mass media and grassroots voices throughout the country. War Times/Tiempo de Guerras continues to make a valuable contribution to this effort - especially given its focus on working class, people of color and immigrant communities - but the antiwar movement now has a greater array of tools to use in crafting its message and getting it in front of a large audience.
As this change has developed over the last year, financial support for War Times/Tiempo de Guerras has diminished. This has particularly occurred as election season kicked in and progressive people started pouring unprecedented resources into one or another election-related initiative. Since spring 2004 War Times/Tiempo de Guerras has been able to substantially retain our print run of near 100,000, as distributors continued to find it useful. But our financial situation has deteriorated badly.
This situation has forced our Organizing Committee to consider how we can make our most effective contribution to the antiwar movement, not just in the remainder of the election season but thinking in terms of the long haul.
As a result, we have decided to suspend print publication for the time being and begin to look ahead to the inevitable readjustment period the entire antiwar movement (and all other movements) will be going through immediately after the election.
We were reluctant to make this decision, as we believe that each issue of the paper still plays a useful role in getting out an ant-war, anti-racist message, especially in areas of the country where there are few other such voices. We know the paper will be missed during the next few months by distributors and activists in many cities and towns. But we simply do not have the funds to continue print publication at this time.
We also feel that War Times/Tiempo de Guerras' remaining resources, and our political voice, is likely to be most useful in the immediate aftermath of the November 2 balloting, when the antiwar movement will be transitioning to a new and very important stage of work no matter who wins the presidency. The War Times/Tiempo de Guerras Organizing Committee is committed to playing as helpful a role as possible in that period of re-evaluation and readjustment. Like others, we will be taking stock, evaluating our work thus far, and offering our ideas and energy for further antiwar activism. The option of resuming print publication - if that seems useful and if sources of funds we have not been able to obtain in this last period can be found - remains on the table. We welcome your ideas and suggestions. And if you would like to help the paper stay debt-free, allow us to maintain our minimal non-print infrastructure, and keep future options on the table, all contributions are gratefully accepted. (You can donate on-line at www.war-times.org.
It has been our privilege to work with you and all the thousands of dedicated antiwar activists who - under tremendously difficult circumstances - have turned peace sentiment into a powerful force in U.S. politics. We look forward to being in touch after the election to discuss the lessons of this project so far and the future of War Times/Tiempo de Guerras and the antiwar movement with you.
For Peace, The War Times/Tiempo de Guerras Organizing Committee c/o EBC, 1230 Market, PMB 409 San Francisco, CA 94102 -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>