What do the son of a Black Panther released after 27 years of false imprisonment, a young activist who traveled over a thousand miles to demonstrate against NATO, a mother with young children who is an Iraq war resister, three young radicals jailed for refusing to talk to a witch-hunting grand jury, a single mom with a teenage daughter fired for spearheading a unionization campaign at Walmart, and a refugee father fleeing from torture in Africa have in common? They and/or their families were all welcomed into the RFC community of support this fall.
As we close out 2012 it is time to review what we’ve accomplished during the year that is ending and place it within the context of growing national militancy. We made over 150 grants to help hundreds of children and over a dozen targeted activist youth, and once again the amount we awarded approached $370,000. This is a bigger task than it might appear at first because each grant to a family might aid several children, and our support often enables each one to participate in a couple of programs. Moreover, since we channel the funds whenever possible through the provider for the benefit of the child, each award requires a triangular set of interactions between the RFC staff, the provider and the grant recipients.
When writing about our grants I emphasize the benefits the children receive, and I am most concerned about not breaching their privacy. There are times when I feel that as a result I pay less attention than I should to the economic and social justice work in which these parents and targeted activist youth are involved. While the RFC’s mission is focused on the children I do not want to lose sight of the courage and commitment of their parents.
Because national media coverage of local organizing efforts is often spotty at best, many older progressive people with whom I communicate express concern about what they perceive as the lack of activism today. However, at the RFC we are aware of many movements involving large numbers of people. In 2012 organized labor mounted mass campaigns in Wisconsin, Ohio and now Michigan, and Our Walmart is currently presenting the biggest labor challenge the world’s largest employer has ever faced.
Local efforts ranging from Stop, Stop and Frisk in New York City, to protests against Stand Your Ground laws in Florida in the wake of the Trayvon Martin killing, to walkouts by Latino high school students in Los Angeles in support of immigrants, have been huge. Thousands more protest the School of Americas torture factory and maintain a drumbeat of anti-war actions that leads to many hundreds of civil disobedience arrests annually.
You won’t see much about it on TV, but almost every week activists are putting their bodies on the line to stop the southern part of the pipeline designed to transport the product of the most ecologically damaging oil extraction scheme the world has ever known. And I shouldn’t omit the terrific organizing that led to the first same sex marriage victories at the polls, and the continuing work by the veterans of the Occupy Wall Street movement especially in areas hard hit by weather catastrophes. All of these descriptions just scratch the surface.
I can’t claim that the RFC has provided support to the children of activists targeted for their involvement in every one of the movements I’ve mentioned, but we’re there for many, if not most, of them. I sense nationwide unease and disquiet across the political spectrum. While there are a lot of angry and armed right-wingers out there, I also see more potential for widespread progressive action than I’ve perceived in decades.
Of course, the forces of repression remain poised to clamp down on whatever unrest develops. But as we enter 2013 at the RFC we are also poised to offer the maximum aid possible to the children of agitators and resisters who act to promote a better world.
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