[haw-info] chapters

[Jim O'Brien]

*The following message is sent on behalf of  the Steering Committee of
Historians Against the War.  Beth McKillen, who wrote it,  is a Steering
Committee member who teaches history at the University of Maine in Orono,
where a HAW chapter is in formation with support from the Graduate Student
History Association.  *

**

November 17, 2008

Fellow HAW members:

The election is over but the need for antiwar activism is not.  Given the
current economic crisis, it is more essential than ever that the new
presidential administration move quickly to end the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.  The United States simply cannot afford to continue to float a
$600-700 billion dollar defense budget if it hopes to deal in a creative
fashion with the long chain of economic problems currently confronting the
country, ranging from bank failures and plants closings, to job losses and
home foreclosures.  Yet, as you know, President-elect Obama has pledged to
withdraw troops from Iraq only to send them to Afghanistan instead.  The
time is ripe for a systematic reevaluation of the costs of U.S. empire.

With that goal in mind, Historians Against the War wishes to announce a new
initiative.  We would like to encourage HAW members to create inclusive
local HAW chapters at their universities or in their communities designed to
bring together undergraduate history majors, graduate history students,
history professors, K-12 history teachers,  and other historically-minded
scholars and activists.  The goals of such chapters would be several.  First,
such chapters would be designed to foster intellectual and political
discussion across the traditional boundaries that often divide students and
teachers and  that sometimes isolate historians from their
communities.  Secondly,
they  they would be charged with planning local HAW events that would bring
historical analysis to bear on current foreign policy crises and on the
linkages between U.S. empire and the current economic distress.  Finally, we
hope that these groups will prove a source of ideas and energy for HAW
itself.

If you are interested in building such a chapter, please contact Beth
McKillen at Elizabeth.McKillen at umit.maine.edu.

Sincerely,

The HAW Steering Committee
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