War Times

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Opposing the "War on Terror"

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11 supportersof STORM and the Bay Area Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism established Ad Hoc Committee 'On Poitical Strategy' to fight against Bush's war against terrorism.

The committee included Betita Martinez, Cindy Wiesner, Max Elbaum, Edget Betru, Harmony Goldberg, Clarissa Rojas, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, John Trinkl, Hany Khalil and Bob Wing.

The group issued an October 5, 2001 statement to other activists;

As we immersed ourselves in the fightback to Bush's war against terrorism, we felt the need to get our political bearings as leftists. So we organized a discussion attended by 27 diverse left activists in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sept. 30, the main points of which we share here.

1 September 11, and the Bush administration's reaction to it, is a defining historical moment, ushering in a new and dangerous period in international politics. Washington's agenda is to entrench the national security state and a new level of international dominance on the basis of a permanent war on terrorism--bringing the "new world order" to fruition.

2 The defining political axis of this new period is Washington's international war on terrorism--and the fight against it. This is similar to the central political role the Cold War played in earlier times. Other struggles will certainly continue, even taking center stage from time to time, but they will be reshaped and connected by the war danger. The political and ideological balance of forces, demands, and outcomes of all struggles will be affected by this central issue, to one degree or another.

3 Given this, the fight for peace should be the central demand for the people's movements. The fight for peace can unite very broad and diverse layers of the population. However, peace is not a centrist, liberal demand, but in fact is central to an anti-imperialist agenda. Its main content is that of staying the hand of imperialist war and fighting U.S. militarism in all its forms.

4 War and racism are the sharpest expressions of Washington's agenda in this period. They are the principal features of the Bush program of permanent war against terrorism at home and abroad, and the key particularities of U.S. capitalism and American politics. The intersection or relationship between war and racism, and between war and racism and all other issues needs to be clarified in order to strategically guide ongoing political work on all issues in the new period, and to link them together into a powerful opposition to Bush's war drive.

5 The pressing need is for broad coalitions of everyone who is for peace and freedom, against the racist war drive, the attacks on civil liberties, democracy and social programs. To be most effective and lasting, these broad fronts should be anchored by fighting organizations based in communities of color, labor, women, lesbians/gays, and other oppressed sectors. Movements among students, youth, seniors, and religious folk will also be critical in this period, and may even run ahead of some of the oppressed sectors.

6 The U.S. left is politically endangered and ill-prepared for this new situation, but has a critical role to play. We are challenged to reorient ourselves to the mass politics of the current political situation, break out of narrow strongholds and historically outdated fights, and build left unity in the course of working in the broader fronts.

War Times founded

In January 2002, a group of San Francisco leftists, also mainly involved with STORM or Committees of Correspondence, founded a national anti-Iraq War newspaper War Times.

The pilot issue of War Times, a new biweekly newspaper opposing the "war on terrorism," will roll off the press on February 14... Featuring an exclusive interview with Danny Glover and a letter to President Bush from Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu, the premier of this bilingual, free publication will be distributed in several dozen cities across the country.

Serving on the War Times Organizing Committee were;

• Jan Adams, former associate director, Applied Research Center
• Linda Burnham, executive director, Women of Color Resource Center
• Jung Hee Choi, Women of Color Resource Center
• Max Elbaum, former managing editor, CrossRoads magazine
• Arnoldo Garcia, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
• Adam Gold, STORM
• Rebecca Gordon, Seminarians for Peace
• Felicia Gustin, co-director, Speak Out
• Van Jones, national executive director, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
• Betita Martinez, director, Institute for MultiRacial Justice
• Steve Williams, executive director, POWER
• Bob Wing, former executive editor, ColorLines magazine

People - 2002

• MANAGING EDITOR: Bob Wing
• EDITORS: Jung Hee Choi, Max Elbaum, Arnoldo García, Ellen Kaiser, Betita Martínez, Samuel Orozco
• TRANSLATION: Mariana Bustamante, Gabriel Castillo, María Erana, Claudia Gomez, Ricardo Ortega
• ART DIRECTOR: Gerald Lenoir
• COPY EDITING: Pat Soberanis, Karen Lenoir
• BUSINESS: Linda Burnham, Rebecca Gordon, Felicia Gustin, Van Jones, Helen Kim, Mimi Ho
• INTERN: Burton Li
• DESIGN AND PRODUCTION: Lisa Roth
• PRINT MANAGEMENT: Denise Granger
• DISTRIBUTION: Jan Adams, Louise Dunlop, Adam Gold, Hany Khalil, Ed Lee, Kerry Levenberg, Laura McNeill, Katherine Ulveling

IN MEMORIAM: Margo Sercarz, who helped launch War Times, passed away on March 28, 2002 at the age of 46. Margo was a lifelong fighter for peace and justice.

Endorsers

WAR TIMES ENDORSERS AS OF JULY 31, 2002.

• Rodolfo Acuna, professor, Chicano Studies
• Karin Aguilar-San Juan, author and professor, Macalester College
• Michael Albert, Z/Znet
• Michelle Alexander, ACLU of Northern California
• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco Chapter
• Asociacion Tepeyac de New York
• Jane Bai, executive director, CAAAV--Organizing Asian Communities
• Hatem Bazian, director Al-Qalam Institute of Islamic Sciences
• Frances Beal, national secretary, Black Radical Congress
• Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
• Larry Bensky, KPFA
• Blase Bonpane, director, Office of the Americas
• Paul Buhle, author and teacher, Brown University
• Douglas Calvin, executive director, Youth Leadership Support Network
• Nilo Cayuqueo, Abya Yala Fund for Indigenous Rights
• Center for Political Education, San Francisco
• Sue Chan, M.D., medical director, Oakland Asian Health Services
• Pamela Chiang, environmental justice activist
• Noam Chomsky, professor, MIT
• Kathleen Cleaver, co-director, Human Rights Research Fund
• Marilyn Clement, economic justice secretary, United Methodist Women's Division
• Chris Crass, writer and activist
• Joy Crocker, Church Women United
• Hunter Cutting, executive director, We Interrupt This Message
• Malkia Cyril, We Interrupt This Message
• Barbara Dane, musician
• Antonia Darder, Claremont Graduate University
• Gary Delgado, executive director, Applied Research Center
• Antonio Diaz, executive director, PODER
• Junot Diaz, writer
• Kim Diehl, co-director, Southerners On New Ground
• Hari Dillon, president, Vanguard Foundation
• Suzie Dod, assistant managing editor, Social Justice
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author and professor of women's and ethnic studies
• Louise Dunlap, Writing for Social Change
• James Early, board chair, Institute for Policy Studies
• Michael Eisenscher, Labor Committee for Peace and Justice
• Kim Fellner, executive director, National Organizers Alliance
• Bob Forsberg, editor, Sequoia Interreligious Newsmagazine
• Frances Fox-Piven, author and professor, CUNY Graduate School
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• Paul George, director, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center
• Joseph Gerson, organizer and educator
• Fred Goff, Data Center
• Chester Hartman, executive director, Poverty & Race Research Action Council
• David Hartsough, Peacemakers
• Francisco Herrera, cultural worker, Caminante
• Phil Hutchings, racial justice activist
• Ron Jacobs, Instant Antiwar Action Group
• James Jennings, author and teacher, Tufts University
• Joo-Hyun Kang, executive director, The Audre Lorde Project
• Pam Kelly, director, Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community
• Hany Khalil, New York labor and community organizer
• Mel King, activist
• Yuri Kochiyama, activist
• Chris Kromm, director, Institute for Southern Studies
• Winona LaDuke, Indigenous Women's Network
• Nomy Lamm, queer writer/performer
• Ying Lee, Peoples Non-Violent Response Coalition
• Gerald Lenoir, board member, HIV Education and Prevention Project of Alameda County
• Julie Light, managing editor, CorpWatch
• Laura Livoti, managing director, National Radio Project
• Yolanda Lopez, visual artist
• Brutha Los, artist/educator, Company of Prophets
• Miriam Ching Yoon Louie, activist and author of Sweatshop Warriors
• Barbara Lubin, executive director, Middle East Childrens Alliance
• Melba Maldonado, executive director, La Raza Information Center
• Eric Mann, executive director, Labor Community Strategy Center
• Esperanza Martell, ProLibertad
• Sharon Martinas, Challenging White Supremacy Workshops
• Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee
• Sara Mersha, executive director, Direct Action for Rights and Equality
• Metro DC Chapter, Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism
• Juana Alicia Montoya, artist
• Richard Moore, executive director, Southwest Network for Economic and Environmental Justice
• Cherríe Moraga, author
• Iris Morales, educator and filmmaker
• Steve Morse, board member, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
• Nancy Nadel, Oakland city councilperson
• Gus Newport, former mayor of Berkeley
• Peter Olney, Institute for Labor and Employment
• Samuel Orozco, Radio Bilingue
• Richie Perez, Justice Committee/National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights
• Jeff Perlstein, executive director, Media Alliance
• Vijay Prashad, author and professor, Trinity College
• Eric Quezada, SF Mission District organizer
• Colin Rajah, executive director, Just Act
• Adrienne Rich, poet
• Bruce Richard, vice president, 1199 SEIU
• Wilson Riles, former city councilperson and progressive Oakland mayoral candidate
• Luz Rodriguez, co-director, Center to Support Immigrant Organizing
• David Roediger, labor historian
• Stephen Rohde, civil liberties lawyer and writer
• Loretta Ross, executive director, National Center for Human Rights Education
• June Rostan, executive director, Southern Empowerment Project
• Jerome Scott, executive director, Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty & Genocide Seminarians for Peace
• Indu Shukla, writer and thinker
• Irwin Silber, writer
• Andrea Smith, Incite! Women of Color Against Violence
• Abdi Soltani, executive director, Californians for Justice
• Dona Spring, Berkeley city councilperson
• Students for Justice in Palestine
• Julia Sudbury, ethnic studies chair, Mills College
• Judy Talaugon, Chumash/Cebuano, Atajes Art & Cultural Resources
• Makani Themba-Nixon, The Praxis Project
• Anthony Thigpenn, Strategy Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education
• Piri Thomas, poet, activist, author
• Mark Toney, executive director, Center for Third World Organizing
• Walter Turner, board president, Global Exchange
• Karen Wald, journalist
• Al Weinrub, Chair, National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981), Bay Area
• Elizabeth Wilcox, Common Counsel
• Ruth H. Wilson, Coordinator, Committee for International Human Rights Inquiry
• Tim Wise, anti-racism activist and writer
• Linda Wolf, photographer/author/director, The Daughters Sisters
• Project/youthactivism.org
• Helen Zia, writer and co-author of Wen Ho Lee's story
• Howard Zinn, historian and author of A People's History of the United States

Finance

War Times/Tiempo de Guerras isa fiscally sponsored project of the Oakland based Center for Third World Organizing.

War Times Staff

In 2009 voluntary War Times staffincluded:

Jan Adams, Karolo Aparicio, Mariana Bustamante, Ruth Warner Carrillo, Jung Hee Choi, Max Elbaum, Arnoldo Garcia, Rebecca Gordon, Felicia Gustin, Hany Khalil, Rachel Kahn, Lynn Koh, Gerald Lenoir, Burton Li, Betita Martinez, Samuel Orozco, Ricardo Ortega, Sushawn Robb, Kerry Taylor and Bob Wing.

References

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