Final Message to Our Readers?

Dear WW4 Report Readers:

We hate to admit that we are at an existential crisis. We think that it is bad form to hold out our demise as a threat to get readers to donate. But after five years, World War 4 Report is starting to look unsustainable. We need to be able to reliably raise $2,000 at least once a year to continue, and our donations have only been decreasing over the past year. We do not understand why.

We know there are a lot of lefty websites out there. But shouldn’t there be ONE that has consistent, detailed coverage of the Iraqi civil resistance and other secular anti-imperialist movements in the Middle East? Of the Zapatistas and other indigenous struggles in Mexico, Central America and the Andes? Of the cultural survival struggles of peoples such as the Tuareg of Niger and Naga of India, facing the twin threats of militarism and oil development on their ancestral lands?

Shouldn’t there be ONE which keeps an exacting eye on Israel’s land-and-water grabs on the West Bank, exposing the industrial agendas behind this systematic theft, and reporting on international efforts to resist it through boycotts and other actions—while still calling out the left’s embrace of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories?

Shouldn’t there be ONE?

Isn’t there a place for a progressive website that is relentlessly diligent, comprehensive and fact-oriented, which does not condescend to the reader with smarmy attitude? That refuses to cut slack for mass murderers of any ideological stripe? That seeks to loan a voice to anti-militarist movements and indigenous cultures everywhere that the US and its proxies are on the attack—not only those which are in the headlines?

We understand that our website is not very visually exciting, and we are working to change that—beginning with this month’s photo essay “Pictures from Palestine” by Ellen Davidson and Judith Mahoney Pasternak. We want to improve—but our shoestring budget is a big part of what is holding us back. If everyone who reads WW4 Report regularly sent $10 tomorrow, we’d be set for the next year and on the road to a better website. But that means everyone.

As we’ve written before: We are writers and researchers, not salesmen. We have neither the time nor inclination to schmooze the Soros machine for a fat hand-out. We cling to the democratic ethic that a radical anti-war e-journal should be sustained by its readers. (Although, if someone out there thinks they can hook us up a foundation grant, please get in touch!)

Are we unrealistic? Is it time to call it quits? We need to raise $2,000 this fund drive to keep going. So far we’ve raised $200.

If you can’t give anything, can you at least write us and tell us what we’re doing wrong?

Once again—by supporting us now, you’ll receive an informative, hard-hitting token of our appreciation. We are currently producing two new additions in our pamphlet series. First, in cooperation with Shadow Press of Lower Manhattan, we will soon present Petro-Imperialism: the Global War on Terrorism and the Struggle for the Planet’s Oil, by yours truly. This will actually be a mini-book, clocking in at around 60 pages. You can receive a personally signed copy for a donation of $25.

We’re also working on the third installment in our series Iraq’s Civil Resistance Speaks, featuring our exclusive interviews and reports on the secular, socialist and feminist opposition to the occupation—to be produced jointly with our friends at Autumn Leaves Used Books in Ithaca, NY. We’ll send this along to the first ten folks to donate $15.

But whether you give or not, we really do want to hear from you. Because we cannot continue on the low level of support we’ve been getting.