[haw-info] "Four Easy Steps to Last-Minute Registration of Students"
The following is from Van Gosse of Franklin & Marshall University, who is on the HAW Steering Committee. Registration deadlines for each state can be found on the following federal government web site: http://www.eac.gov/voter/Register%20to%20Vote/deadlines. (Many of the deadlines are within the next week.) The right of students to vote in the communities in which they attend school was confirmed by the Supreme Court in 1979.
F&M Votes recommends the four things you can do right now to get your students to the polls on November 4:
1. Find out the registration deadline in your state.
2. Make a poster with that deadline, telling students where they can register to vote on campus, and put it up around campus.
3. Set up clipboards with blank registration forms and drop boxes marked "Put Voter Registration Forms Here" in at least two key campus locations, such as your library's circulation desk, or the information desk of your student center.
4. Organize a table staffed by student and faculty volunteers in your student center for the last three days before the deadline, with a large sign saying "Register to Vote Here!" and ask your president, provost, or a dean to send out an all-student message explaining the deadline and where they can go to register, whether just the boxes or the staffed table.
Richard Milhous McCain Debates John Fitzgerald Obama
In the debate, I kept expecting Obama to echo Kennedy's warning from 1960 in his debate with Nixon about the need to close the non-existent "missile gap." While he was more restrained than McCain on Iraq and Iran, his differences on other foreign policy issues were generally paper thin.
Like McCain, Obama endorsed the General Jack Ripperesque move of admitting Ukraine and Georgia to NATO (thus potentially obligating the U.S. to escalate to World War III in case of a border dispute with Russia) and a "surge" of more U.S. troops into Afghanistan. Obama's statements on U.S. military incursions into Pakistan made McCain look almost cool-headed by comparison (no small accomplishment).
four things you can do right now to get your students to the polls on November 4
F&M Votes recommends the four things you can do right now to get your students to the polls on November 4:
1. Find out the registration deadline in your state. 2. Make a poster with that deadline, telling students where they can register to vote on campus, and put it up around campus. 3. Set up clipboards with blank registration forms and drop boxes marked "Put Voter Registration Forms Here" in at least two key campus locations, such as your library's circulation desk, or the information desk of your student center. 4. Organize a table staffed by student and faculty volunteers in your student center for the last three days before the deadline, with a large sign saying "Register to Vote Here!" and ask your president, provost, or a dean to send out an all-student message explaining the deadline and where they can go to register, whether just the boxes or the staffed table.
[haw-info] Report on Iraq War teach-in at UC Berkeley Sept. 19
The following is a report on the Iraq War teach-in at UC Berkeley, co-sponsored by Historians Against the War, War Times, and several campus groups. For an additional report from the UC Berkeley News Center see http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/09/22_teachin.shtml.
The HAW Steering Committee hopes there will be a great number of campus events around the country aimed at keeping the war in the public eye during the election season. See http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/teachin/ or contact Margaret Power at power@iit.edu. Please keep us informated of any events that you are planning or have already held.
REPORT TO HISTORIANS AGAINST THE WAR: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Pre-Election Teach-In on the Iraq War
Summation of the day:
The Teach In on the Iraq War took place on Friday, September 19, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, in the spacious glassed in Heller Lounge of the Student Union right at the entrance to the campus below Sather Gate, a historic location of course, recalling the Free Speech movement of 1964 and thousands of demonstrations that have followed in the free speech zone created by the 1964 militants. Heller Lounge is now a Multicultural Center, thanks to the struggles of Ethnic Studies students in 1999.
250 chairs were set up with sofas and easy chairs lining the walls and an elevated stage in front with the sound equipment and a screen. In the other 1/3 of the room where people enter, Ramsay Kanaan of PM Press set up a bookstore, and there was ample standing room for those who did not want to commit to sitting down.
We began on time (every session began on time) with a talk by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame. At that time only about 30 people were in attendance beyond the dozen organizers, so we felt anxious that it was going to be very small, but the numbers increased steadily to full capacity by early afternoon.
John Yoo was speaking at 11 AM in a building across Sproul Plaza. The UC President's office and the Law School hastily organized an all day session on torture and the constitution with a bunch of right wing lawyers, including Yoo, to take place at the same time as the Teach In. They announced it only the day before our Teach In.
The 10 AM panel on torture and the constitution was better attended and was excellent, with local civil rights attorneys Anne Weills and Dennis Cunningham, and constitutional legal expert Tom Reifer, The panel was moderated by lawyer and critical theorist John Hayakawa Torok, professor at Berkeley (all moderators for all panels were UC faculty or students). The discussion was excellent.
The 11 AM panel on US interventionism included a Palestinian activist, Mexican writer, a Serbian who was under the bombs in Belgrade, and myself. By then, there were probably 100 people with lots of people lounging on the sides and quite a number standing in the back.
At noon, we had box lunches for all the speakers and organizers, and a good crowd gathered to watch film clips from Paul Cronon's documentary in progress on the 1968 Columbia uprising. He had just come from showing the 4 hour film at the Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim. Tom Hayden arrived about that time, and Immanuel Wallerstein was there, and they are both featured in the clips.
We had a hard time getting Iraq veterans lined up, but succeeded at the end beyond our wildest dreams. The 1:30 PM panel on "from Vietnam to Iraq" was supposed to start with a half hour talk by Tom Hayden, but instead he insisted on being one of the panelists. IVAW finally responded (thanks to Anne Weills work) and sent us a new member of theirs, Forrest Schaeffer, who was in Delta special forces in Afghanistan. A working class Irish-American guy, his father, a Vietnam vet, shot himself when Forrest was 6 years old. At 19, Forrest signed up to special forces after 9/11 to "defend America." The other vet, Cleavon Gilman, is African-American, now a student at UCBerkeley, and was a medic in Iraq. Our main UC student organizer, Roberto Hernandez, had met Cleavon in a class he TAed this summer. He has a speech impediment (stuttering), which somehow made his testimony even more powerful. Neither Forrest nor Cleavon had spoken in public before, so it was a liberating experience for each of them. The room was packed and totally silent when they spoke. The discussion that followed with Carlos Muñoz (Vietnam vet and founder of Chicano Studies), Antonia Juhasz, a young activist/writer on the war, and Tom Hayden, and the two vets was powerful. To me, this was the highlight of the day and the reason for even doing the teach in.
The 3-4:30 panel on how to stop US wars of aggression featured Immanuel Wallerstein, and students and faculty crammed the place, as he has, deservedly, many fans. But, Dunya Alwan, an Iraqi American that Max Elbaum recruited for us, stole the show with her descriptions of everyday life of Iraqis under occupation.
We then had an hour and a half of discussions led by two brilliant young Chicana doctoral candidates, more video, some music and refreshments.
Comments:
We did not end up getting sponsorship by the Associated Students (ASUC). Classes had just started and they were new to their jobs and didn't even know if they had the right to sponsor without consulting the student assembly which is not scheduled to meet until the end of the month. However, we did have the student organization, Critical Response and Intervention for a Sustainable Ethnic Studies (CRISES) as primary sponsor (along with HAW and War Times, which, of course, have no standing on the campus to do anything), and that made everything possible, not in terms of funding, which was too soon in the semester, but in kind support--the space free of charge, set up, just the right to be there. We could not have had the teach in without, specifically, Roberto Hernández, Daphne Taylor-Garcia, and Dalida María Benfield, who were burdened with most of the day to day work getting everything set up and recruiting the moderators.
From "The Great Rehearsal" we were able to get publicity, thanks to HAW's financial contribution--great posters put up by a professional thumb-tack brigade. The Great Rehearsal and University of San Francisco paid for speakers to come to the USF symposium held on Saturday after the teach in, and we were able to borrow those speakers for our panels, including Immanuel Wallerstein. The Working Group that came together, an intergenerational group of young and 60s activists, was about the best group I've worked with for a long time. We're thinking of planning more teach ins.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, HAW Steering Committee, coordinator of the teach in.
REPORT TO HISTORIANS AGAINST THE WAR: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on the pre-election teach-in in Berkeley on the Iraq War
Summation of the day:
The Teach In on the Iraq War took place on Friday, September 19, on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley, in the spacious glassed in Heller Lounge of the Student Union right at the entrance to the campus below Sather Gate, a historic location of course, recalling the Free Speech movement of 1964 and thousands of demonstrations that have followed in the free speech zone created by the 1964 militants. Heller Lounge is now a Multicultural Center, thanks to the struggles of Ethnic Studies students in 1999.
250 chairs were set up with sofas and easy chairs lining the walls and an elevated stage in front with the sound equipment and a screen. In the other 1/3 of the room where people enter, Ramsay Kanaan of PM Press set up a bookstore, and there was ample standing room for those who did not want to commit to sitting down.
We began on time (every session began on time) with a talk by Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers fame. At that time only about 30 people were in attendance beyond the dozen organizers, so we felt anxious that it was going to be very small, but the numbers increased steadily to full capacity by early afternoon.
John Yoo was speaking at 11 AM in a building across Sproul Plaza. The UC President's office and the Law School hastily organized an all day session on torture and the constitution with a bunch of right wing lawyers, including Yoo, to take place at the same time as the Teach In. They announced it only the day before our Teach In.
The 10 AM panel on torture and the constitution was better attended and was excellent, with local civil rights attorneys Anne Weills and Dennis Cunningham, and constitutional legal expert Tom Reifer, The panel was moderated by lawyer and critical theorist John Hayakawa Torok, professor at Berkeley (all moderators for all panels were UC faculty or students). The discussion was excellent.
The 11 AM panel on US interventionism included a Palestinian activist, Mexican writer, a Serbian who was under the bombs in Belgrade, and myself. By then, there were probably 100 people with lots of people lounging on the sides and quite a number standing in the back.
At noon, we had box lunches for all the speakers and organizers, and a good crowd gathered to watch film clips from Paul Cronon's documentary in progress on the 1968 Columbia uprising. He had just come from showing the 4 hour film at the Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim. Tom Hayden arrived about that time, and Immanuel Wallerstein was there, and they are both featured in the clips.
We had a hard time getting Iraq veterans lined up, but succeeded at the end beyond our wildest dreams. The 1:30 PM panel on "from Vietnam to Iraq" was supposed to start with a half hour talk by Tom Hayden, but instead he insisted on being one of the panelists. IVAW finally responded (thanks to Anne Weills work) and sent us a new member of theirs, Forrest Schaeffer, who was in Delta special forces in Afghanistan. A working class Irish-American guy, his father, a Vietnam vet, shot himself when Forrest was 6 years old. At 19, Forrest signed up to special forces after 9/11 to "defend America."
The other vet, Cleavon Gilman, is African-American, now a student at UC Berkeley, and was a medic in Iraq. Our main UC student organizer, Roberto Hernandez, had met Cleavon in a class he TAed this summer. He has a speech impediment (stuttering), which somehow made his testimony even more powerful. Neither Forrest nor Cleavon had spoken in public before, so it was a liberating experience for each of them. The room was packed and totally silent when they spoke. The discussion that followed with Carlos Muñoz (Vietnam vet and founder of Chicano Studies), Antonia Juhasz, a young activist/writer on the war, and Tom Hayden, and the two vets was powerful.
To me, this was the highlight of the day and the reason for even doing the teach in.
The 3-4:30 panel on how to stop US wars of aggression featured Immanuel Wallerstein, and students and faculty crammed the place, as he has, deservedly, many fans. But, Dunya Alwan, an Iraqi American that Max Elbaum recruited for us, stole the show with her descriptions of everyday life of Iraqis under occupation.
We then had an hour and a half of discussions led by two brilliant young Chicana doctoral candidates, more video, some music and refreshments.
Comments:
We did not end up getting sponsorship by the Associated Students (ASUC). Classes had just started and they were new to their jobs and didn't even know if they had the right to sponsor without consulting the student assembly which is not scheduled to meet until the end of the month.
However, we did have the student organization, Critical Response and Intervention for a Sustainable Ethnic Studies (CRISES) as primary sponsor (along with HAW and War Times, which, of course, have no standing on the campus to do anything), and that made everything possible, not in terms of funding, which was too soon in the semester, but in kind support--the space free of charge, set up, just the right to be there. We could not have had the teach in without, specifically, Roberto Hernández, Daphne Taylor-Garcia, and Dalida María Benfield, who were burdened with most of the day to day work getting everything set up and recruiting the moderators.
From "The Great Rehearsal" we were able to get publicity, thanks to HAW's financial contribution--great posters put up by a professional thumb-tack brigade. The Great Rehearsal and University of San Francisco paid for speakers to come to the USF symposium held on Saturday after the teach in, and we were able to borrow those speakers for our panels, including Immanuel Wallerstein. The Working Group that came together, an intergenerational group of young and 60s activists, was about the best group I've worked with for a long time. We're thinking of planning more teach ins.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, HAW Steering Committee, coordinator of the teach in.
An Afghan woman on the history of her country and the dishonest and failed occupation...
On Friday night I attended a talk by an Afghan woman from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). The speaker had been invited to speak in Tübingen by the German "Die Linke" (The Left) party in preparation for a demonstration in Stuttgart on Saturday against the presence of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. The mandate for the Bundeswehr is going to be debated shortly in the German parliament. The mandate is unpopular among the German population, but enjoys majority support in the parliament.
The speaker, who went by the name of Zoya, told about RAWA's social and political work and the difficult situation in Afghanistan today. Although she said her story was not about history, she made several points that are important from an historical perspective for understanding the current situation there. They are things which are totally under-reported in the western media and, so her argument, lead to a grave misunderstanding of the situation there.
She pointed that from 1992 to 1996, fundamentalists who were hardly better than the Taliban had ruled Afghanistan. They supressed women, raped and murdered and ran a drug economy. Then, from 1996 to 2001, a rival group of very similar fundamentalists, the Taliban, took power and continued the policies. During this period, the people of Afghanistan were crying out for help from the international community. But only after 911 were their calls heard, only after 911 did the world care about terrorism in Afghanistan.
The U.S. invaded the country much differently than the Soviet Union had more than 20 years before. They came with beautiful words on their lips: liberation, democracy. So, according to Zoya, the Afghanis did not resist and threw open their country's gates. But then, disillusionment set in. The U.S. had allied itself with the very fundamentalist forces who had pillaged the country before the Taliban, the various groups of the "Northern Alliance." The result, she argued, has been a catastrophe.
What the western media does not report is that the vast majority of the government (executive, legislative and judiciary) under Karzei is made up of criminals, fundamentalists, warlords and drug lords who continue their reign of terror - but now under the nose of the occupation. She recounted specific stories of high-placed officials, including members of parliament and high-ranking members of the police forces, who are widely known to have raped 12 and 13 year old girls.
She put special emphasis on the situation of women in Afghanistan. Not only are they suffering along with the general population - the hardships of hunger and general terror. But they suffer as women. In the west, we think the women have been "liberated" because they are no longer required by law to wear the burkha. Zoya reported that that is only the law. Women have to keep wearing it if they do not want to be beaten and raped. And wearning the burkha is only a symbol. A normal life is still not possible.
She told about the catastrophic infrastructure, despite the billions of dollars being spent on the country. The Minister of Electricity is commonly referred to as the "Candle Minister." The money is all going into the pockets of the corrupt elite. There is little to no freedom of speech, with critical voices subject to arrest and execution. The occupation forces are also actively doing more harm than good by killing innocent people. She said that if the U.S. was serious about ending terror in Afghanistan, they would get the terrorists. It would take one day to arrest the entire government and send them to the Hague. Since they do not do this, and do not support the truly democratic forces in Afghanistan, she can only conclude that there are other reasons for the occcupation and the so-called Global War on Terror is only an excuse to maintain a strategic presence in the region.
Her solution? End the occupation. The small, weak democratic organizations and individuals see themselves faced on all sides by enemies: the Taliban, the Northern Alliance, the Karzei government, war lords, drug lords - and the 26 occupying powers. If the latter would leave, that would mean fewer enemies to deal with. When asked by a member of the audience if that wouldn't mean that the fundamentalist forces could clamp down all the more, she responded that things cannot get any worse. She said they would rather die a swift death than the protracted death in the current situation. But she also noted that there is hope. Even without the occupation, the outside world could help support the democratic forces in the country.
Asked about ethnic divisions within the country and the danger of a civil war, she reiterated that after 30 years of terror, there is a real danger of a civil war, but it would not be worse than the current situation. The ethnic divisions were real out in the countryside where the illiterate population was under the thumb of the fundamentalists who seek to divide the population for their own interests. But they can be overcome if the circumstances could be changed. There is a real sense of national, Afghan solidarity when it has a chance to express itself.
She ended by telling a little bit about RAWA's social work and emphasizing Afghani responsibility for the fate of her country. It is the responsibility of the Afghanis to fight for their own freedom. The international community can best help by ending the occupation and cutting off all support for the radical, fundamentalist forces currently terrorizing her people.
The local TV station here in Tübingen, Germany, covered the event. Zoya's face was not shown, to keep her from being murdered upon her return home in a number of weeks. It is hard to imagine this young woman with good English, western dress and demeanor will soon be back in Afghanistan, wearing a burkha, blending into the scenery, to continue her underground struggle.
TEACH IN ON THE IRAQ WAR FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2008
University of California, Berkeley MCC-Heller Lounge- MLK Student Union (Lower Sproul Plaza, Bancroft and Telegraph)
Organized by: Critical Response and Intervention for a Sustainable Ethnic Studies (CRISES), UCB Historians against the War War Times/Tiempo de Guerras
Co-Sponsors: Arab Student Union Cross-Cultural Student Development, UCB Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC), UCB Students for Justice in Palestine Visuality and Alterity Working Group, UCB Xinaxtli de UCB
Part of the "1968: The Great Rehearsal" Series of Events www.greatrehearsal.org
PROGRAM
9–9:30 AM: Welcome and Introductions by sponsors
9:30–10: Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers: Secrets and Lies in the Vietnam War and the Iraq War Introduced by Daphne Taylor-García, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chicana/o Studies, UC Santa Barbara
10–11 AM: Panel on Torture, Aggressive War & Presidential Power: The Constitutional Crisis Anne Weills, Civil Rights Attorney Dennis Cunningham, Civil Rights Attorney Tom Reifer, University of San Diego, Associate Fellow of the Transnational Institute Moderator: John Hayakawa Torok, Critical Race Theorist, Ethnic Studies UC Berkeley
11AM–noon: U.S. interventionism Sami Kitmitto, Arab Resource and Organizing Center Paco Ignacio Taibo II, activist, writer, Mexico 1968 and after Andrej Grubacic, Global Commons: "Humanitarian Intervention" in the Balkans Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Historians against the War Moderator: Neda Atanasoski, Assistant Professor, Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz
12–1:30 PM: "A Time to Stir" Film clips and discussion with Director Paul Cronin The film is a work in progress that documents the Columbia student revolts of '68 Moderator: Eddie Yuen, Sociologist, Author, Associate Producer of "Against the Grain" KPFA Brown Bag Lunch
1:30: Tom Hayden, Founder SDS, Author of Port Huron Statement, anti-Vietnam War leader
2–3:00 PM: From the Vietnam War to the Iraq War
• Carlos Muñoz, Vietnam Vet, Veterans for Peace, Professor, Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley • Antonia Juhasz, Author, The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time; and The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry -- and What We Must Do To Stop It • Forrest, Iraq Veterans Against the War • Cleavon Gilman, UCB student, Iraq veteran • Tom Hayden Moderator: Roberto Hernández, Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnic Studies, UC Berkeley
3-4:30PM Stopping US Wars of Aggression • Immanuel Wallerstein, Senior Research Scholar, Yale University; Fernand Braudel Center • Dunya Alwan, Iraqi American, Co-founder of Birthright Unplugged and International Women’s Peace Service • Keiko Schnelle, Code Pink, UC Santa Cruz student • Roberto Hernández, CRISES, UC Berkeley Moderator: Annie Fukushima, Ph.D. Candidate, Ethnic Studies/DEWGS, UC Berkeley
4:30-5PM: Questions, Comments, Discussion Moderators: Dalida María Benfield, Ethnic Studies/DEWGS, UCB and Daphne Taylor-García
5-6 PM Closing Remarks, Reception, and "Politicized Media/Mediatized Politics" Exhibition of video clips and music. Hosted by Visuality & Alterity Working Group
WORKING GROUP: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Historians against the War, rdunbaro@pacbell.net Max Elbaum, WarTimes/Tiempo de Guerras, maxie@igc.org Roberto Hernández, Ethnic Studies, UCB, tochtli@berkeley.edu Daphne Taylor-García, Ethnic Studies, UCB; UCSB, dtgarcia@berkeley.edu Dalida María Benfield, Ethnic Studies, UCB, dalidamariabenfield@berkeley.edu Tom Reifer, University of San Diego, Associate Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Consolecb@aol.com Carole Travis, community organizer, travisce@aol.com Steve Tappis, Sixties activist in Chicago, tappis@yahoo.com Rick Ayers, educator, UCB graduate student, rick-ayers@earthlink.net
Contact:
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Historians against the War, rdunbaro@pacbell.net 415-370-4996 or Roberto Hernández, Ethnic Studies, UCB, tochtli@berkeley.edu Or Max Elbaum, War Times, maxie@igc.org
Medieval analogies in policy discourse and the role of historians...
The most recent issue of the AHA’s Perspectives on History (September 2008) has a lead article by the organization’s president, Gabrielle M. Spiegel, titled, ”Getting Medieval”: History and the Torture Memos. It is about neomedievalism - a “cache of analogies about the medieval nature of contemporary non-state actors, including terrorists, which subsequently influenced the reasoning behind the legal judgements expressed by the authors of the torture memos”, John Woo and Jay S. Bybee. She discusses the increasing use of medieval analogies in public discourse as well as in policy making.
I first encountered the analogies in the political science textbooks I was teaching from. They compared the trends in globalization, with the weakening of state power and the increasing power of international corporations, to re-feudalization of international relations. Articles in the press also made analogies, comparing, to cite an example from a German editorial, the United States of America to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation – a feudal network of diffuse power relationships under the overall guidance of an “emperor” (the federal government). The major actors were not the seven Electors who chose the emperor in medieval Germany, but the largest corporations who exercised real control over American foreign influence and policy.
Spiegel points out that analogies with medieval times were the only historical analogies to appear in the torture memos. Bybee wrote in his memo that Taliban commanders were “more akin to feudal lords than military officers” and emphasized the non-state nature of both their regime and the Al Qaeda organization. Failed state status was equated with a fall-back on medieval times – and used to justify supposedly medieval methods of dealing with American enemies.
She goes on to cite the analysis of Bruce Holsinger that these analogies have become commonplace in describing the post Cold War world in think tanks and in U.S. government institutions. The problem is not that those who influence or make policy are thinking historically, it is that they are not: “the ‘medieval’ in neomedievalism matters not a whit.” The conclusion that we as historians are thus powerless to correct the analogy is perhaps unduly pessimistic. Spiege quotes Holsinger: “For what motivates the analogical use of “medieval” has little to do with historical understanding, couched though it may be in terms of medieval epithets.” Spiegel summarizes: It is a “rhetorical strategy of demonization by which the present government sought to induce adherence to its extralegal politics and operations.” She notes that medievalists themselves have become involved on the other side of the debate by using analogies with medieval torture to show that torture doesn’t work.
Spiegel would like to discourage all the analogizing as distractions from substantive criticism and engagement. Historical analogies misleadingly imply genealogy and legacy (as if, I suppose, the Taliban regime or the practice of waterboarding are somehow legacies of medieval Europe), decontextualize the real history, and are less effective than comparisons and contrasts.
I like to use analogies from politics and the press as learning moments in the classroom. I have students evaluate buzz-words such as “Islamo Fascism” or "American Empire" and take a closer look at how these terms are used in the press.
Outside the classroom, as historian-activists, we need to consider possible ways of using our expertise about the past in current debates while being true to our trade by avoiding decontextualization and oversimplification. If our field is relevant to understanding the human condition - and the great public interest in historical films and genealogy and the effectiveness of historical analogies in propaganda and discourse indicate that it is - we can assert ourselves more boldly. We don't have Whether we can be the ones with our hands on the history in a media environment hostile to context and nuance is hard to say. I would like to be more optimistic than Professor Spiegel seems to be. That is difficult, however, when I imagine a bearded scholar trying to deconstruct "Islamo Fascism" or "medieval" in a five-minute shouting match with Bill O'Reilly.
But somehow getting the nuance, the context, into public consciousness might well serve an activist purpose. The real historical background to events is always complicated and ambiguous. Contextualization thus tends to subvert ideological abuse. History is messy and not conducive to supporting simplistic policies.
The Iraqis just won't get with the program. I think it is safe to say that the McCain-Palin campaign, the Weekly Standard, and the National Review will pretend this never happened:
Iraqi legislators said Sunday that parliament had voted to lift the immunity of a Sunni Arab lawmaker who visited Israel.
Alusi at the funeral of his two sons who were killed in an assassination attempt in Baghdad in 2005.
The parliament has also banned Mithal al-Alusi from traveling outside Iraq or attending parliamentary sessions, they said.
Sunday's punishment was confirmed by Osama al-Nujeif, a Sunni Arab lawmaker, and Haider al-Ibadi, a Shi'ite lawmaker.
As I predicted, this is well worth watching. Harvey Kushner makes all the standard pro-war Republican arguments and Scott Horton overwhelms him with evidence to the contrary. I doubt Kushner has ever experienced anything like this.
Hi! Here are a few notes regarding Historians Against the War activities:
1. Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg and Margaret Power have put together a list of forty people who have agreed to speak at teach-ins or other educational events this fall at no cost beyond travel and housing. The list, with descriptions and contact information, is at http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/teachin/speakers.htm.
2. The flagship event of HAW's effort to encourage war-related educational events during this election season is an all-day teach-in at the University of California at Berkeley on Friday, September 19, co-sponsored by HAW, War Times, and several UC Berkeley groups. Information is at http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/teachin/ucb.html.
3. The HAW Steering Committee is still welcoming input on a possible statement on the US/NATO military presence in Afghanistan. About a dozen comments have been received so far in response to the tentative discussion points sent out last week (and reprinted below). All points of view from HAW members are welcome. Comments should be sent to afghanistan@historiansagainstwar.org.
Thanks, Jim O'Brien for the Steering Committee
DiscussionPoints
1. Whatever views we hold on the initial US military intervention in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US, it is now clear that the US/NATO presence in this country has become an occupation, increasingly resented and opposed by large sections of the population.
2. Despite the relief that met removal of the totalitarian Taliban government by US and NATO forces, the new government, chosen under the direction of the Bush administration, has distanced itself from the people, is rent with corruption, and barely governs anything. Outside of Kabul, warlords and criminal elements operate with impunity, the opium trade grows, violence -- including violence by the occupation forces -- proliferates, and the Taliban is resurgent.
3. The purpose of US policy in Afghanistan is not to support the self-determination of the Afghan people, but to extend the bankrupt global war against terror deeper into Central Asia, and to strengthen US geopolitical power in this region.
4. The US/NATO war on Afghanistan is not a "good war" in contrast to the "bad war" on Iraq, and the current consensus in higher political circles, including both major party candidates for president, that the war in Afghanistan must be escalated, is wrong and will only deepen the regional crisis and suffering of the Afghan people.
5. The US and NATO must immediately withdraw their military and political assets from Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can have room to decide their own future. Continued US/NATO action in the country is a large part of the problem and cannot be the solution. [There has been subsequent discussion of what "immediately" might mean in practical terms: for example, beginning immediately and completed between, say, six months, or a year.]
Debate on the the U.S. and Terrorism, Streamed live Tonight (6:30 p.m)
Tonight at 6:30 p.m at Texas A and M, Scott Horton, the host of antiwar.com radio, will debate Dr. Harvey Kushner on the following question: “Is the United States pursuing the correct strategy against international terrorism?” It will be streamed live and can be viewed here. Horton has an encyclopedic knowledge of this topic and is an effective debator. Don't miss it.
In this audio of an interview on the Scott Horton show, Glenn Greenwald discusses the arrest of distinquished journalist Amy Goodman during demonstrations at the Republican Convention.
Sami Kitmitto, Arab Resource and Organizing Center
Paco Ignacio Taibo III, activist, writer: Mexico 1968 and After
Andrej Grubacic, Global Commons: "Humanitarian Intervention" in the Balkans
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Historians against the War
Moderator and Commentator: Ramon Grosfoguel, Professor, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Noon–1:30 PM: Brown Bag session: Film clips and discussion with Paul Cronin, whose work-in-progress "A Time to Stir" documents the Columbia student revolts of '68.
Moderator: UCB tba
1:30–2:00 PM: Tom Hayden, Port Huron statement, SDS, anti-Vietnam War.
2:00–3:00 PM: Panel on Vietnam War to Iraq War
Tom Hayden
Carlos Muñoz, Vietnam era veteran, Veterans for Peace, Professor of Ethnic Studies, UCB
Antonia Juhasz, author:The Bu$h Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time and The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry, and What We Must Do To Stop It
Iraq Vet: tba
Brian Willson, Vietnam vet, Veterans for Peace
Moderator: Roberto Hernández, Ethnic Studies, UCB
3:00–4:30PM: Panel on stopping US wars of aggression
INCITE speaker/Andrea Smith (invited)
Roberto Hernandez, UCB Student Activist:
Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
Immanuel Wallerstein
Moderator: Carole Travis
4:30–5PM: Questions, discussions
Moderator: UCB tba
5–6:30 PM: Film clips and discussion with Sam Green, whose film "The Weather Underground" was nominated for an academy award in 2004, and Paul Cronin.
Moderator: UCB tba
7PM:a joint event sponsored by the teach-in and the Townsend Center anchored by Dalida Maria Benfield, Ethnic Studies, UCB
For those who think increasing corporate financing of university research and the dictates of enrollments über alles and student/customer satisfaction in running higher education are not enough to bring us to the complete commodification of knowledge, here's this notice from Saturday's New York Times:
PAY FOR STUDENTS Public middle-school students in the District of Columbia have some of the lowest test scores in the nation. So in a pilot program this fall, about 3,000 of them will be paid for showing up at school, behaving well and getting good grades.
The idea of giving students financial incentives is starting to gain traction throughout the nation, with schools in New York City and five states experimenting with cash-for-grades. The district’s schools chancellor, Michelle Rhee, says the rationale is simple: “This is exactly what life is about. You get a paycheck every two weeks. We’re preparing children for life.”
Remember: Nothing is of any intrinsic worth. Everything is measurable in dollars and cents or can't really be worth anything at all.
More and more during the current election year, talk of drawing down US forces in Iraq has been paired with a call for bolstering US/NATO forces in Afghanistan. Within the HAW Steering Committee, there is strong sentiment against such a buildup, and most members personally favor an end to the US military presence in Afghanistan altogether. However, we have not taken an official position because we would like to involve more HAW members in the discussion.
The points set forth below were proposed by one member of the Steering Committee and were found by other members to be helpful in framing the discussion.
The Steering Committee would like to invite feedback over the next two weeks (September 5 - September 20) on any of the discussion points or more generally on the question of US policy in Afghanistan. Please send any comments to afghanistan@historiansagainstwar.org.
Thanks, Jim O'Brien for the HAW Steering Committee
Discussion Points
1. Whatever views we hold on the initial US military intervention in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the US, it is now clear that the US/NATO presence in this country has become an occupation, increasingly resented and opposed by large sections of the population.
2. Despite the relief that met removal of the totalitarian Taliban government by US and NATO forces, the new government, chosen under the direction of the Bush administration, has distanced itself from the people, is rent with corruption, and barely governs anything. Outside of Kabul, warlords and criminal elements operate with impunity, the opium trade grows, violence -- including violence by the occupation forces -- proliferates, and the Taliban is resurgent.
3. The purpose of US policy in Afghanistan is not to support the self-determination of the Afghan people, but to extend the bankrupt global war against terror deeper into Central Asia, and to strengthen US geopolitical power in this region.
4. The US/NATO war on Afghanistan is not a "good war" in contrast to the "bad war" on Iraq, and the current consensus in higher political circles, including both major party candidates for president, that the war in Afghanistan must be escalated, is wrong and will only deepen the regional crisis and suffering of the Afghan people.
5. The US and NATO must immediately withdraw their military and political assets from Afghanistan so that the Afghan people can have room to decide their own future. Continued US/NATO action in the country is a large part of the problem and cannot be the solution. [There has been subsequent discussion of what "immediately" might mean in practical terms: for example, beginning immediately and completed between, say, six months, or a year.]
Welcome to a new school year. The Historians against the War Steering Committee believes the upcoming Presidential and Congressional elections are of vital importance to the future of our country. Apart from the Presidential contest, there are critical races in the House and Senate, which could dramatically influence the direction of U.S. policy. As one example, this summer 155 members of the House and 26 Senators voted against “blank check” funding for the war. Unfortunately, the numbers were too small to defeat the legislation. Fortunately many pro-war members of Congress are facing electoral challenges from peace candidates this year.
While our organization does not endorse particular candidates, we see this moment as a rare opportunity for educating and mobilizing students, faculty and members of the larger community around the issues of war and peace, civil liberties and constitutional governance. We would like to encourage all of you to organize any of the following HAW activities that you feel are appropriate for your campuses.
1. Plan a simple Fall Forum or a more elaborate Teach-In on the peace and civil liberties issues at stake in the 2008 elections. From past experience, colleagues from other disciplines are often eager to help, which has made events more vibrant and well attended. For ideas about how to organize such a forum, see our website at http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/. We are presently in the process of updating and expanding our Speakers Bureau. That new list will include distinguished guest lecturers –academics and activists-who have agreed to give talks at HAW-sponsored events in return for travel reimbursements. That list will be available on September 8.
On the web-site you will also find lists of suggested films and publications, as well as descriptions of successful Teach-Ins, staged across the country in 2006. If you have additional suggestions about resources, please share them with Margaret Power at power@iit.edu. Please keep Margaret informed about events that you are setting up so that we can issue a calendar.
2. Make available to members of your community information about the voting records of incumbents and the positions of candidates on the key issues. We particularly encourage HAW members to highlight the continuing importance of Congress for any future efforts to curb the US policy of permanent war and repression. Useful summaries of Congressional votes can be found at the United for Peace and Justice website: http://www.unitedforpeace.org/modinput4.php?modin=145.
3. Write historically minded articles/letters to the editor for local papers on war issues and their relevance to various political races.
4. Participate in already planned community political events, but bring HAW resources and perspectives to this work.
5. Make sure that there is a strong, visible Voter Registration effort on your campus. One model for doing this is provided by friends at Franklin and Marshall college, (See attached.)
Please let us know of your ideas and accomplishments, as we strive to end the multiple tragedies of the present. Good luck
The Steering Committee of Historians Against the War has endorsed the "Million Doors for Peace" campaign of United for Peace and Justice, the national antiwar coalition to which HAW belongs. Information is below. The Steering Committee suggests that HAW members who take part in the campaign consider raising the issue of the Afghanistan war along with the Iraq war in their canvassing. Jim O'Brien for the HAW Steering Committee
September 20, 2008 - National Day of Action: Be part of one of the most ambitious and innovative anti-war activities to date!
On Saturday, September 20, thousands of volunteers across the U.S. will knock on a Million Doors for Peace.
United for Peace and Justice is partnering with US Action/True Majority, Win Without War, and other organizations to make this day the biggest peace action of 2008.
Volunteer doorknockers will ask people to sign an antiwar petition directed to Congress. Our message: End this immoral war, bring our troops home, and invest in America's future. In addition, we will encourage people to join local anti-war groups, engage in voter education work, and become a part of the organized antiwar movement in their area.
In order to reach a million people in a single day, we must organize at least 25,000 volunteers in all 50 states. Peace groups have never implemented such an elaborate communication and organizing plan before now, but with new and traditional communications tools available, we anticipate success with this groundbreaking, grassroots project. This project will not end on September 20, but it will be a new beginning of a more organized grassroots movement for peace and justice.
Training materials, petitions, local groups to canvass with in your area, and handouts will be provided.
Free Trial Membership to Peace & Change for HAW members
26 August 2008 Dear HAW Members,
The Peace History Society has arranged for HAW members to receive a free, 30-day trail subscription to Peace and Change: A Journal of Peace Research, the major journal in the field. You have until the end of the year to activate this 30-day trail subscription. For log-in instructions, please go to http://interscience.wiley.com/trial/pech_haw.
I also invite you to join the Peace History Society. Founded in 1964, the Peace History Society encourages, supports, and coordinates scholarly research on peace, nonviolence, and social justice; it also communicates the findings of this scholarly work to the general public. PHS members seek to broaden the understanding and possibilities of world peace. They include historians, and other scholars of international and military affairs, transnational institutions, nonviolence, and movements for peace and social justice. For more information on the PHS, and to join online, please go to the PHS website, at http://www.peacehistorysociety.org/.
The PHS looks forward to the reception that we are co-hosting at the Jan. 2009 American Historical Association conference in New York City. Mark your calendars for Saturday, Jan. 3, 2009, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Hilton New York, Sutton Center.
Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Even those of us who don't trust electoral politics acknowledge that much of the fall's discussions among students will have the elections as a backdrop and inspiring motive. Hence, get out the vote efforts can be very effective ways of reaching students who otherwise might not feel comfortable discussing political questions; they can also build strong networks among activist students and teachers on campus, and encourage open policy debate. With this in mind, we forward the following guidelines, developed by the "F&M Votes Coalition" at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA, for encouraging the "get out the vote" effort this fall on your campus. Note: F&M's coalition has registered over 2,000 students from 2004-2008, and turned out large majorities of the College’s student body to vote on Election Day. Questions can be directed to Van Gosse at van.gosse@fandm.edu.
TEN EASY STEPS TO REGISTER STUDENTS TO VOTE
STEP ONE
Create a nonpartisan coalition, incorporating students, faculty and staff, to register, educate, and turn out students to vote. Remember: Since the Help American Vote Act was passed, all colleges and universities receiving any federal funding are required to make a good effort to register students, so you are helping out your school by doing this. Meet with senior administrators, even your president, to explain your plans and ask for their support.
STEP TWO
Investigate:
1. When is the registration deadline in your state (typically 30 days before Election Day)?
2. How do you properly fill out your state’s voter registration form, including any rules on assisting registrants?
3. Where are the current polling places for students resident at, or living nearby, your campus?
STEP THREE
Make your own customized voter registration form, using an original from your state but adding in all possible information (e.g. if these students live on campus, you can fill that information in). Make sure you receive prior approval from your County Board of Elections to do this, and copy the “customized” form onto the lower half of a sheet with instructions about it [see attached] so as to speed up the process.
STEP FOUR
Organize a crew for “Move-In Day,” when first-years show up with their parents, new furniture and CD collections to collect room keys, sign up for bank accounts etc. Most schools do this in their gym or student center. If you can arrange for a strategically-placed table, and have several people stand in front of it with clipboards full of (preferably customized) voter registration forms, you can easily sign up one or two hundred new voters. Tips:
· train all volunteers on filling our the registration forms
· give all volunteers “talking points” so they can explain to students why it behooves them to register here (are they now in a swing state? How many students actually manage to vote absentee? How close will their polling station now be?)
· have extra clipboards on the table with pens
· if possible get the school to fund some kind of simple give-away, whether edible or otherwise; at F&M we made 500 “F&M Votes” Frisbees with our logo on them
· be prepared for parents who will get very suspicious and weird, as in “he’s already taken care of, he votes at home” without waiting to see what their son actually wants to do
STEP FIVE
Table at your Student Activities Fair: again, typically early in the fall term there is a day when all student organizations staff tables and seek members. Your clipboarders should circulate through the crowd, asking people to register to vote.
STEP SIX
Later in September, organize an in-class registration week. After clearing it with the appropriate dean, a respected professor of the faculty should email the entire faculty, asking if they can spare ten minutes at the beginning of a class for a volunteer to hand out forms and help students fill them out. The coordinator should link volunteers to classrooms at the professors’ convenience. Volunteers must be trained so that they do not waste classtime.
STEP SEVEN
Use the registration deadline for a final push—tabling, clipboarding at key points on campus. Ask a leading campus administrator to send a message to all students that this is their last chance.
STEP EIGHT
The month before the election is ideal for voter education: forums with professors to explain the issues, debates between Campus Republicans and College Democrats, guest speakers, a film series, etc.
STEP NINE
In the week before the election, organize systematic Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) operations in the dorms and/or your campus neighborhood: putting a flyer with location of the polling place and hours under every door, to begin with. Even better is creating a list of registered students from the current voter list held by your county board of elections, which by law is available for the public. Go door-to-door, ask for that specific voter and remind him or her to vote, making sure they have all necessary information.
STEP TEN
On Election Day itself, open an Election Headquarters early in the AM in your Student Center, with banners, coffee and free food, and keep it open until the polls close. This is to remind students where to vote, and encourage them to do so: many students will still be uncertain as to whether or not they are registered, and where, or even how late they can vote. Make sure you have the current list of registered voters. If there is any question of hostile individuals or groups “challenging” the right of your students to vote, get sympathetic faculty and staff to act as poll greeters, ready to call in on cell phones to report any problems. If you do anticipate these challenges, get your college’s legal counsel alerted in advance, ready to apply to a judge for redress: it has repeatedly been established in court cases around the country that students have right to vote where they go to school, but there is considerable local resistance to “non-residents” exercising their rights.
Peace & Change: Special Issue on the U.S. War in Iraq, Call for Reviewers / Call for Articles
Peace & Change, the scholarly journal of the Peace History Society and the Peace & Justice Studies Association, is compiling a special issue for mid-2009 which will consist largely of reviews of books and films on the Iraq War and related issues, as well as of some articles. We invite interested scholars and activists to volunteer to review selected books or films, and to submit articles, or proposals for articles.
Please contact Robert Shaffer of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, at roshaf@ship.edu, to receive a list of the books and films we would like to review for this issue.
Reviews should emphasize the importance of the book in evaluating U.S. policies in Iraq or related issues, and the usefulness of the book to students, the general public, the antiwar movement, and the critical scholarly community. Reviews for this special issue of Peace & Change have a 1500-word limit, or 2500 words for a joint review. The due date for reviews to be submitted will be January 1, 2009.
To submit an article on the topic -- historical perspectives, analyses of U.S. policy, analyses of the anti-war movement, or related issues -- please also contact Robert Shaffer, with a 250-word proposal, and a brief c.v. Articles will be subject to peer review, and will be due December 1, 2008.
We hope this special issue of Peace & Change will be an important resource for historians, other peace and antiwar scholars, and antiwar activists in general.
Robert Shaffer Associate Professor of History Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania 717-477-1180 roshaf@ship.edu
Palin's role is the traditional one assigned to the vice president, as candidate and office-holder: she is the attack dog, in what will be a campaign very much concerned with foreign policy issues. Expect her to be the point-woman on the alleged threat represented by Russia: after all, it wasn't so long ago that the Alaskans suffered under the Czars' yoke, and, to add insult to injury, were sold to the Americans for a truly paltry sum. If I were an Alaskan, I'd resent that, and there's evidence Palin did, too: at least that's one explanation for her flirtation with the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates secession from the US. But her secessionist days are over, I believe: in the future she'll be attacking the secessionist Ossetians as Russian agents-of-influence and defending US intervention there, as in Iraq, as a mission divinely ordained.
Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism and the War on Terror
An August 26, 2008 the French Committee of Vigilance on the Public Uses of History (CVUH) published Nicolas Hoffenstad's review of Bruce Holsinger's Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism and the War on Terror (Prickly Press, 2007). (http://cvuh.free.fr/spip.php?article195).
As we try to understand the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is a worthwhile read. Those who teach Medieval History and Western Civilization as well as those who are concerned with rhetorical manipulations, deceptions, disruptions and wish to make them a part of critical historical teaching will find Holsinger's book informed, informative and useful.
The publisher's synopsis states,
"President Bush was roundly criticized for likening America’s antiterrorism measures to a “crusade” in 2001. Far from just a gaffe, however, such medievalism has become a dominant paradigm for comprehending the identity and motivations of America’s perceived enemy in the war on terror. Yet as Bruce Holsinger argues here, this cloying post-9/11 rhetoric has served to obscure the more intricate ideological machinations of neomedievalism, the global idiom of the non-state actor: non-governmental organizations, transnational corporate militias, and terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda.
Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror addresses the role of neomedievalism in contemporary politics. While international-relations theorists promote neomedievalism as a model for understanding emergent modes of global sovereignty, neoconservatives exploit its conceptual slipperiness for their own tactical ends.Holsinger concludes with a careful parsing of the Bush administration’s torture memos, which enlist neomedievalism’s model of feudal sovereignty on behalf of the abrogation of human rights. President Bush was roundly criticized for likening America’s antiterrorism measures to a “crusade” in 2001. Far from just a gaffe, however, such medievalism has become a dominant paradigm for comprehending the identity and motivations of America’s perceived enemy in the war on terror.
