Friday, October 22, 2010

The wars of empire grind on; we must speak for a better future


War Times/Tiempo de Guerras has launched our new website. In the summer of 2010, about a dozen new writers joined War Times, and we’re using our new site to bring you their voices.

We think that the new site represents the distinctive War Times point of view: a focus on the effects of these war times on the lives of ordinary people in the U.S. and around the world. We’ll also be publishing some of our features, like the “Month in Review,” in Spanish.

War Times will continue to provide information and analysis about events in the Middle East and other parts of the world confronting U.S. militarism. At the same time, we’ll be sharpening our focus on building grassroots movements here at home. We will be featuring on-the-ground reports, reflections on and assessment of different campaigns and organizing efforts. Take a look at Christine Ahn’s piece about how peace and racial and economic justice organizations came together to plan a national campaign to move the money from war spending to community needs.


"Bringing a race, class, and gender perspective to issues of war and peace."

That’s our new tag line, and it describes what we plan to do. In these difficult economic times, we will be paying special attention to the connections between wars abroad and unemployment, crumbling infrastructure, struggling public education systems, and bankrupt towns, cities and states here at home. We're concerned, too, about a rise in anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence. We are worried about a manipulating right-wing that encourages some folks in this country to make immigrants and people of color scapegoats for the government's failure to deal with their very real and painful economic problems.

Come on by.
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I've been working with WT/TdG since its beginnings and will be writing there as well as here. Empire -- its dysfunctions, its distortions, its murderous inhumanity -- is a big topic; every little bit helps.

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