Announcements & Updates: SAVE THE DATE – “Self-Care for Activists” on September 23; Let’s Defend Organizations Under Attack

September 2023
 

Save the Date: Self-Care for Activists on September 23

By Jeneve Brooks
Strategic Support and Initiatives Coordinator

Save the Date: Self-Care for Activists
Saturday, September 23rd via Zoom
12-1:30 pm EST / 11am-12:30 pm CST / 9-11:30 am PST
Registration fee: $20

September is Self-Care Awareness Month and in these challenging times, we need to take care of ourselves! Join Audri Scott Williams, visionary author, global peace walker, Civil Rights activist, and interfaith minister as she facilitates our rest and restoration through this interactive webinar focusing on “Self-Care for Activists.” 

An eAlert will be sent in September with the pre-registration link and more information about the webinar.

Photo: Audri Scott Williams picture from her website: audriscottwilliams.com. 
 

Let’s Defend Organizations Under Attack

by Leni Villagomez Reeves
Co-chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issue Committee

Code Pink and other organizations including Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, the People’s Forum, Just World News and Books, have come under attack recently.

The New York Times ran an article attacking groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, which included this sentence: “None of Mr. Singham’s nonprofits have registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, as is required of groups that seek to influence public opinion on behalf of foreign powers.” Senator Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida) has already called for a federal investigation of these groups on the basis that they are somehow agents of the Chinese government. 

The Foreign Agents Registration Act was used in the McCarthy era, most famously to target W.E.B. Du Bois and the Peace Information Center, a US anti-nuclear group which was connected with international peace movements and published anti-nuclear and pacifist literature from around the world, including the international Stockholm anti-nuclear petition.

Jane Addams was a founding member of the ACLU and the NAACP, and a member of the Anti-Imperialist League. Her activities were constantly under the same kind of attack. She would want us actively to defend our fellow radicals.

I’ve written a full, magazine-length article about the history of attacks like this which will appear in the next Peace & Freedom. Let’s brainstorm about how we can support each other and be prepared if an attack on WILPF occurs during this contemporary era of ultra-nationalism and right-wing extremism.