S.O.S. – This is an emergency! 

S.O.S. – This is an emergency! 

Alliance for Global Justice and our fiscally-sponsored projects are under attack by right-wing media. They’re desperately trying to intimidate and silence us in order to neutralize our effectiveness in growing and supporting movements for liberation and justice worldwide. The company that handled our credit card donations has blocked AfGJ and our projects from use of this critical fundraising tool, yet we remain steadfast in our consistency to grow and support movements for liberation and justice worldwide, including the plight for freedom for the Palestinian people. AFGJ was temporarily deplatformed. Charity and Security Network defines deplatforming as canceling a client’s ability to accept credit cards and other financial services. While articles and accusations come and go — rhetoric and ramifications can come in hard. This isn’t the first time they’ve come for our people-centered values. Every time people of conscience push back against fascism, AFGJ comes under attack. Ironically, most of us remember when being anti-fascist was considered an honor. Democracy in this country is clearly in crisis.  

Most recently, a far-right rag made false and dangerous accusations about AfGJ. AFGJ refuses to exceptionalize the Palestinian human rights movement, as these right-wing publications are desperately seeking to do. While this is a period of distraction from our pathway to freedom and human rights, it presents an opportunity to strengthen and renew AFGJ’s progressive movement for justice. 

If they come for Samidoun, AFGJ, they have come for all of us. Samidoun is an international organization that supports the thousands of Palestinians unlawfully imprisoned by the far-right Israeli government. Hundreds of these prisoners are children under the age of 12. The right-wing has tried to shut Samidoun down previously, but the organization has successfully defended the legality of its work. This attack on AFGJ is also another attempt to damage work in defense of Palestinian human rights.

Because of this right-wing’s disparagement, AfGJ cannot currently accept credit donations – and neither can the 140 organizations that rely on us to provide them with fiscal sponsorship, which includes handling their accounting and providing them with nonprofit status.  From people bringing clean water to the Apache reservation to programs that mentor LGBTQiA kids and teach them to use art as a means of self-expression, to bail funds that shell out money to carceral systems that lock up people for demonstrating to demand an end to police murders of BIPOC people, our fiscally sponsored projects are laboring to create a more sane, sustainable and just world.

AfGJ is working too. Our support of our partners in Central and South America, many of whom risk their lives every day and sometimes pay the ultimate price … our solidarity with Palestinian people who struggle for national liberation and against unjust occupation and apartheid … our work for immigration justice … our human rights school …  all of this is at risk.

Our staff and board collective is working overtime, under stressful conditions, to find alternatives to protect AfGJ and our projects. We are doing everything we can to stop this assault on our freedom and our right to organize for that more beautiful, just, and sustainable world we all dream of.

That dream is worth defending, and we are ready to do so. But even when we reverse this cowardly attack, we cannot easily make up for the income lost by our inability to accept credit card donations.

Because of this attack, the tax-deductible paper checks you write and send us in the mail take on a new dimension. When you make out a check to AfGJ, you are engaging in direct action, in frontline resistance to a concerted effort by the most extreme right-wing groups to stop justice in its tracks. You are sawing away at the chains that bind us. You are pushing back against those who prefer a world of inequality, white supremacy, imperialism, repression, and war.

One thing is certain: If they succeed in destroying Alliance for Global Justice, they will turn their sights on other organizations that are fighting back the rising tide of repression. They will come for you.

This attack shows us how vulnerable we are to digital attacks by the enemies of freedom. We have anti-virus and other protections on our website, and we take pains to keep our data secure – but there’s little we can do when they attack us through third parties.

We are resorting to old-fashioned techniques, and we need your solidarity:

• Please donate via paper checks. Mail them to AFGJ, 225 E. 26th St., Suite 1, Tucson, AZ 85713.
• We’re building a phone tree that can be used to mobilize supporters when attacks occur. We are looking for supporters such as you to join that phone tree. Please send us your name and phone number, and let us know that you’d like to participate. (Email [email protected].)
• Spread the word! Use whatever platforms you have at your disposal – including word of mouth.

As the enemies of the people gloat about our troubles, we are counting on you to help us stand: To help with legal costs. To make donations via paper checks. To spread the word. To shout from every doorstep, every keyboard, every workplace, every street, and every field that all human beings possess dignity and have the same human rights as the privileged few.

The people we work with to create real, sustainable, just change refuse to back down, even when things get tough. We cannot afford to fail. We have seen what it looks like when the forces of oppression prevail. AfGJ refuses to go there. We’re betting that you refuse, too.

Please help in any way that you can!

In solidarity, resolve, hope, and perseverance,

The board & staff collective of Alliance for Global Justice

 

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