Historians Against the War (HAW)

Electronic Newsletter No. 6, December 2007

 

Contents

       The HAW 2009 Conference, April 11-13, Atlanta

HAW at the AHA 

HAW at the Latin American Studies Association

       HAW Working Groups

 

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The HAW 2009 Conference, April 11-13, Atlanta

 

Over twenty panels, roundtables, and workshops have been accepted for the HAW national conference, April 11-13 at Georgia State University in Atlanta.  Featured speakers have also been lined up for plenary sessions.

 

The conference will begin Friday evening, April 11, with a keynote session featuring Bill Fletcher, Jr., a long-time activist in the black freedom and labor movements, former president of TransAfrica and former education director of the AFL-CIO.  It is possible that Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, will be a co-keynote speaker; she won’t know until January if she will be able to attend the conference.

 

A Saturday evening plenary session will feature Dina Rizk Khoury of George Washington University, a historian of Iraq, and Zachary Lockman of New York University, who just finished his term at president of the Middle East Studies Association.

 

For a complete list of the other sessions, scheduled for Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning, see the conference web site:  http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/hawconf.

 

Pre-registration is $40 (or $25 low-income) and includes lunch on Saturday as well as coffee, fruit, and pastries both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

 

 

HAW at the AHA 

 

The annual HAW membership meeting will be held at 4:30 pm Saturday, January 5, during the AHA convention, location to be announced.  During the meeting we will vote for the 2008 Steering Committee, analyze our work in 2007, and discuss plans for 2008.

 

We will share a literature table with the Radical History Review, as in the past.  It will be near the Convention Registration Counter on the lobby level of the Marriott Wardman Park on Friday, starting at 11:30.

 

Several HAW Steering Committee members (Chris Appy, Carl Mirra, and Margaret Power), along with Linda Shopes and Jerry Lembcke, will be on the panel “Voices of Military Resistance: Continuities and Discontinuities among Dissenters in Chile, Vietnam, and Iraq” at 9:00-11:00 Saturday morning in the Omni Capital Room.

 

At the 2007 AHA business meeting, members overwhelmingly passed the Resolution included below.  In a subsequent on-line vote by AHA members, over three-fourths of those voting confirmed the business meeting’s approval of the Resolution.

 

Resolution on United States Government Practices Inimical to the Values of the Historical Profession

 

(AHA Resolution passed, January 2007)

 

Whereas, The American Historical Association’s Professional Standards emphasize the importance of open inquiry to the pursuit of historical knowledge; 

 

Whereas, the American Historical Association adopted a resolution in January 2004 re-affirming the principles of free speech, open debate of foreign policy, and open access to government records in furthering the work of the historical profession;

 

Whereas during the war in Iraq and the so-called war on terror, the current Administration has violated the above-mentioned standards and principles through the following practices:

 

*excluding well-recognized foreign scholars;

*condemning as “revisionism” the search for truth about pre-war intelligence;

*re-classifying previously unclassified government documents;

*suspending in certain cases the centuries-old writ of habeas corpus and substituting indefinite administrative detention without specified criminal charges or access to a court of law;

*using interrogation techniques at Guantánamo, Abu-Ghraib, Bagram, and other locations incompatible with respect for the dignity of all persons required by a civilized society;

 

Whereas a free society and the unfettered intellectual inquiry essential to the practice of historical research, writing, and teaching are imperiled by the practices described above; and

 

Whereas, the foregoing practices are inextricably linked to the war in which the United States is presently engaged in Iraq; now, therefore, be it

 

Resolved, That the American Historical Association urges its members through publication of this resolution in Perspectives and other appropriate outlets:

 

1. To take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values necessary to the practice of our profession; and

 

2. To do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.

 

 

HAW at the Latin American Studies Association:

by Margaret Power

 

About 40 people attended the HAW-organized panel at the recent Latin American Studies Association (LASA) Congress in Montreal, Canada.  The panel, titled, "U.S. Imperialist Policies in Latin America and the Middle East" looked at similarities and difference between U.S. policies in the two regions.  Enrique Ochoa, California State University, chaired the session and Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz, Historians Against the War; Walter Hixson, University of Akron; Rula Abisaab, McGill University; Malek Abisaab, McGill University; Margaret Power, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Gregory Grandin, New York University, made a series of brief presentations.  A lively discussion ensued.

 

 

HAW Working-Group Updates

 

Legislative

If you are a “Congress Watcher,” feel free to send news to: Carolyn “Rusti” Eisenberg, Legislative Working Group.  Updates will be posted as regularly as possible.  Help with editing of Legislative Updates is very welcome: contact Rusti for details, hiscze@aol.com

 

Teaching

The HAW Teaching Working Group would like to propose the development of about six "Document Based Questions" for inclusion on the AP History exams--US, European, and World.  We need your help.  Anyone who has worked for ETS in developing DBQs in the past, has worked as an ETS AP Essay Reader, or has taught AP History in a US high school:  we need your expertise and guidance.  If you would like to contribute to and guide the development of these questions, please contact Jeri Fogel, " jerise@redjellyfish.net, or David Applebaum, applebaum@rowan.edu

 

 

HAW Resources

 

The "Teaching Resources" section of the HAW web site (www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources) contains information on pamphlets, guides, essays, and new K-12 on-line “Teaching Resources on the Vietnam War and the Iraq War” (by John Fitzgerald, a Vietnam veteran and retired high school history teacher who is on the HAW Steering Committee).

This issue of the Newsletter was edited by Jeri Fogel along with Margaret Power and Jim O’Brien.