by Robin Carton and Carol Schachet

Radical politics and a kick-ass party—that sums up RESIST’s 40th anniversary celebration in October, where hundreds heard some of today’s leading progressive voices discuss grassroots activism. And then danced!

This issue of the Newsletter offers a taste of the fun and spirited thinking from that event. You will find remarks from our panelists on the question of resisting illegitimate authority today—the theme of RESIST since its founding in 1967 during the Vietnam War.

Noam Chomsky, a RESIST founding member and leading critic of US imperialism, compares then and now. Outspoken military resister Camilo Mejía tells his story of conscientious objection against the Iraq War that rages beyond the line of sight of most Americans. Mandy Carter, strategist and organizer in the Black, LGBTQ and women’s movements, challenges us to think and act beyond whatever subgroup of the movement we find ourselves in. For labor activist Bill Fletcher, Jr., the future calls for a new kind of confederation. And radio and independent journalist Laura Flanders looks beyond mainstream sources to call for accountability and change.

The 40th Anniversary gathering provided an opportunity to consider RESIST’s roots and impact on movements for social and economic justice. As the song says, those roots run deep.

RESIST was born 40 years ago with a “Call to resist illegitimate authority,” urging support for those refusing to serve in the Vietnam War. The original “Call,” which circulated in public as well as private ways, was eventually signed by over 20,000 people. The approximately 200 initial signers included Noam Chomsky, Grace Paley, Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., Denise Levertov, Dwight MacDonald, Allen Ginsberg, the Rev. Robert MacAfee Brown, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, W. H. Ferry, Mitchell Goodman, David Dellinger, Barbara Guest, and Marcus Raskin, among others.

On October 2, 1967, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., read the “Call” at a press conference at the New York Hilton. Speakers outlined the anti-draft initiatives scheduled to take place in the coming weeks. Attendees were then invited to a meeting at Columbia University to delineate priorities, decide how to implement the goals outlined in the "Call to resist," and create a temporary steering committee which would be in charge of distributing funds and meeting monthly to report on activities. RESIST was formed at that meeting.

Two weeks later, more than 5,000 people responded at a rally on the Boston Common. Local clergy, academics, and others urged Americans to remember their moral conscience and avoid blindly following national policies that violate "international agreements, treaties and principles of law which the United States Government has solemnly endorsed." These governmental policies, hauntingly similar to the current war in Iraq, included destroying crops, livestock and civilian structures, interning civilian non-combatants in camps, inflicting torture and summary executions. The government’s actions were always justified by raising the fear that the “enemy” could be on our doorstep and by claims that victory was just around the corner.

“The Call” became a central document (titled “Overt Act #1”) in the conspiracy trial of five men charged with conspiring to “counsel, aid, and abet Selective Service registrants to evade military service and refuse to carry draft cards.” Those indicted included a group known as the Boston Five: Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.; Harvard graduate student Michael Ferber; teacher and writer Mitchell Goodman; Marcus Raskin, a former National Security Council staffer and Washington think-tank leader; and pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Spock.

The very first grants RESIST awarded all went to anti-war and student organizing projects. However, it soon became apparent that the war itself wasn’t isolated from other governmental policies.

RESIST broadened its perspective and within two years funded prison support work, community organizing in Black neighborhoods, and a range of projects in high schools.

Clearly, the reason RESIST survived its early years is that it maintained a primary emphasis on peace, anti-war and anti-militarism issues. Over the years, however, the proportional relationship between that emphasis and others has shifted in response to changes in the movement as a whole.

RESIST plays a critical role in introducing activists to progressive philanthropy. Some, such as the Center for Constitutional Rights, Global Exchange and the Center for Third World Organizing now have annual budgets larger than ours. RESIST also provided the first grants to Lois Gibbs as she struggled to organize her community to confront the environmental disaster at Love Canal. Now her organization (the Center for Health, Environment and Justice) plays a leading role in grassroots advocacy for healthy communities everywhere.

In 2007, RESIST is alive and well, funding nearly 150 grassroots groups each year, supporting anti-racist work; full human rights for women, gay men and lesbians and those with disabilities; labor and environmental activism; and Third World solidarity, as well as anti-war and anti-corporate globalization initiatives.

Today, more organizations are working for social change in this country than at any time in RESIST’s history. As one of the first funding stops for many groups, we play a critical role by: enabling organizations to respond quickly to pressing challenges with one of the fastest turnaround times for grantmaking in the country; providing general support which allows grantees to build infrastructure and capacity while engaged in ongoing social justice activism; offering technical assistance grants to ensure activists can get help with training, consultation, or restructuring as they lay the groundwork to become stronger, dynamic organizations; and introducing activists to the larger role of progressive philanthropy and connecting them to other potential funding sources.

Now as at its founding, RESIST relies on the support of individuals committed to peace, economic justice, human dignity and environmental sustainability in order to keep its doors open—and to help groups across the country do the same. The spirit, conviction and power of RESIST still lie in bringing together the people who fund and who build a movement for social change.

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Robin Carton and Carol Schachet have been RESIST staffers for the past 12 years. This article includes material gathered from years of research and writing, particularly from the work of Tatiana Schreiber.