Randolph
Bourne, a
notable American critic and social activist, courageously opposed
World War I.
The Randolph
Bourne Institute (RBI) seeks to honor his memory by promoting a non-interventionist
foreign policy for the United States as the best way of fostering a
peaceful, more prosperous world.
RBI is recognized
by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(C)3 nonprofit educational foundation.
RBI has a number of projects: a website, Antiwar.com; a fellows
program for writers/researchers; a speakers program;
a student intern and campus outreach program; and a cultural critique
program. All RBI projects attempt to provide a forum where the
entire political spectrum – libertarian, left, right, centrist – can
join together on the vital issue of opposing war.
The RBI was
founded in 2001, but the Antiwar.com
website is now in its seventh year. It has grown greatly, as has its
following both in terms of numbers of readers and in the ability to
influence the type and tenor of debate about non-interventionism. For
example, in mid-October, MotherJones.com’s
front page featured Antiwar.com’s Editorial Director (and RBI Fellow)
Justin Raimondo along with Geov Parrish of WorkingForChange in an examination
of just this issue. Follow-up radio interviews have followed. We are
really pleased with this, and will continue to do what we can to make
the state-of-the-movement a visible, actionable issue.
Donations
to the Randolph Bourne Institute (and Antiwar.com!) are tax deductible
– and essential for the continuation of our efforts. We don’t carry
ads; we don’t sponsor "shopping" – we focus on delivering
a very clear, undiluted message of news and analysis of events, current
and past. But we need you, our readers, to help
us stay afloat. Without that, we’ll sink.
The Randolph
Bourne Institute Projects
- Antiwar.com
is the RBI’s main project and it is the pre-eminent non-interventionist
site on the internet. It provides daily, even hourly, coverage of
breaking news and analysis on major world conflicts with particular
emphasis on the US role – something the established media utterly
fail to offer. To accomplish this, Antiwar.com has developed a combination
of existing news sources as well as its own columnists and journalists
in the various conflict areas. Our targeted audience includes media
and college students, as well as concerned individuals and organizations.
- Areas
of ongoing concern include Iraq, Iran, India/Pakistan, Israel/Palestine,
the Balkans, Macedonia, China, and Southeast Asia. Iraq has been for
some time a primary focus; besides carrying related domestic and foreign
coverage, the site maintains an "Iraq Update" page providing
in-depth history and links.
- September
2002 was our second-best month ever (after October 2001), with just
over 300,000 unique visitors; we also topped our record on Yahoo Full
Coverage, with 584 stories on their current events news. The site
continues to be linked to and articles are picked up by an ever-growing
number of news sources and journalists.
- The RBI
Fellows Program provides support for authors on the topic of non-intervention.
Currently, the Editorial Director of Antiwar.com, Justin Raimondo,
is also a Fellow. His writings include An Enemy of the State: The
Life of Murray N. Rothbard (2000); Into the Bosnian Quagmire:
The Case Against U.S. Intervention in the Balkans (1996); Reclaiming
the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement
(1993); and numerous articles for newspapers and magazines (including
the LA Times, New York Times, Chronicles Magazine).
As a tool for RBI Fellows, as well as for other researchers and students,
the RBI Library offers approximately 2000 source materials
on political and historical topics. Writers are also welcome to use
the library, which provides computer access, as a space for study.
- The RBI
Speakers Program provides speakers, primarily on US intervention,
to colleges and other venues. Speakers have included our Fellows,
columnists, and staff members. Justin Raimondo has been speaking at
college campuses in Fall ’02, with Iraq as the centerpiece of his
comments. We are actively seeking to expand in this area and have
more scheduled events in the future. If readers have suggestions,
we welcome them.
- A Student
Intern/Campus Outreach Program was initiated summer of 2002 with
two interns who worked on setting up the RBI campus outreach program,
as well as on the Antiwar.com website and RBI Library project, and
meeting with writers and others in the Bay Area (e.g., Hoover Institute
Fellows, Stanford and UC Berkeley students). The Campus Outreach Program
is being coordinated out of Washington University, St. Louis, by Mike
Ewens. We want to expand the intern program to year-round.
- Finally,
the RBI is initiating a new kind of effort: a Cultural Critique,
targeted initially at American culture and its relationship to war.
The first offering will be a photographic essay inspired by the on-line
story "Toy
Soldier Commandeers Barbie Dream House".
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