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RESIST is a philanthropic non-profit organization based out of
Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. It has provided grants to grassroots activist organizations around the country since its inception in 1967 as a result of the anti-war proclamation "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority".


History

RESIST formed in 1966 as an intellectual collective in response to the growing unrest surrounding the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. First taking shape in the period leading up to the March on the Pentagon, Robert Barsky describes the collective's formation in ''Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent'': In addition to Chomsky and Lauter, others involved in the organization's early stages included novelist Mitchell Goodman, novelist Hans Koning, poet
Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...
, writer Dwight Macdonald, leading lawyer for the Mobilization's Legal Defense Committee Ed de Grazia, poet Denise Levertov, and '' The Armies of the Night'' author
Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...
In the days leading up to the march, the collective penned "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority," which was published in the October 12th, 1967 edition of ''The New York Review of Books''. The manifesto was signed by hundreds including Mitchell Goodman, Marcus Raskin Henry Braun, Denise Levertov, Noam Chomsky, William Sloane Coffin,
Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...
,
Robert Lowell Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (; March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) was an American poet. He was born into a Boston Brahmin family that could trace its origins back to the ''Mayflower''. His family, past and present, were important subjects ...
, Dwight Macdonald,
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
, Barbara Guest, Wilbur H. Ferry, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Leaflets were circulated among sympathizers prior to the march detailing their intended action: The March was met with police aggression, resulting in the arrests of Mailer, Chomsky, Dave Dellinger, and Dagmar Wilson.


The Boston Five

The publishing of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" led to the arrest of five of its signers, known as the Boston Five, in early 1968. These were Michael Ferber, Dr. Benjamin Spock, William Sloan Coffin, Mitchell Goodman, and Marcus Raskin. All five were members of RESIST. The indictment came on counts of "conspiring to 'counsel, aid, and abet' young men to refuse service in the armed forces and to refuse to have in their possession registration certificates and notices of classification." The claims were met with opposition from anti-war sympathizers, including the some odd 200 members of RESIST. The organization's associate national director and professor of Humanities at M.I.T. Louis Kampf held a press conference to address the organization's response to the indictments. He stated that Resist was considering calling a national academic strike, and that a statement in support of the Five was gathering signatures. The Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
was among the first to sign, "declaring that he too should go to jail if the five under indictment are sentenced." As reported in
The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper at Harvard University, an Ivy League university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. The newspaper was founded in 1873, and is run entirely by Harvard College undergraduate students. His ...
:
According to the indictment, Coffin, Goodman, Raskin, and Dr. Spock agreed to sponsor a nationwide draft-resistance program ESISTthat would include disrupting the induction processes at various induction centers, making public appeals for young men to resist the draft and to refuse to serve in the military services, and issuing calls for registrants to turn in their draft cards ... Another "overt act" of the alleged conspiracy is the distribution in New York last August by Coffin and Dr. Spock of a statement entitled "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority."
The Boston Five were convicted of conspiracy in the courtroom of Francis Ford.


COINTELPRO

In the late 1960s and early 1970s RESIST received information from an underground group called " The Citizen's Commission to Investigate the FBI" regarding surveillance of various citizens and groups. The documents included "manuals and routine forms, 25 per cent concern bank robberies, 20 per cent murder, rape, and interstate theft, 7 per cent draft resistance, 7 per cent AWOL soldiers and 1 per cent organized crime, including gambling". In addition to these, intelligence was gathered about groups such as the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
and the Jewish Defense League. These documents were part of a larger FBI initiative called
COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltr ...
; an acronym for COunter INTELligence PROgram. The program "was a secret FBI program designed to monitor and "neutralize" domestic groups deemed by the FBI to be a danger to national security. Such groups included anti-war groups and civil rights groups and individuals like
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
and even
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
" RESIST was the first to release leaked information surrounding the covert initiative, leading to the formation of the
Church committee The Church Committee (formally the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) was a US Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence ...
: an investigative senatorial committee whose purpose was to flesh out the true story behind the allegations. The allegations brought to light by RESIST turned out to be entirely correct, leading to the cessation of the program.


Today

RESIST has moved away from its front lines activist roots and now seeks to fund those that continue that work. In 2014, the organization gave 146 grants to grassroots activist organizations around the country, thanks to the help of over 7,000 donors, contributing an average gift of $129.00. Resist has broadened in scope since its inception to include issues of environmentalism, the rights of women, prisoners, undocumented immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and worker's rights, among others. The organization continues to work to support the groups that are chopping down the pillars that prop up everything from militarism to capitalism, from racism to patriarchy, and the intersections that connect them all. There is a long list of organizations that have benefited from its efforts, including grantees such as: * Global Exchange *
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...
* Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors * Students for a Democratic Society * Third World Newsreel * 9to5 *
American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an Native Americans in the United States, American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues ...
*
Clamshell Alliance The Clamshell Alliance is an Anti-nuclear groups in the United States, anti-nuclear organization founded in 1976 to oppose the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. The group was co-founded by Paul Gunter, Howi ...
* Gay Liberation Front * Southern Student Organizing Committee *
United Farm Workers The United Farm Workers of America, or more commonly just United Farm Workers (UFW), is a labor union for farmworkers in the United States. It originated from the merger of two workers' rights organizations, the National Farm Workers Associatio ...
* Vietnam Veterans Against the War *
ACT-UP AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is an international, grassroots political group working to end the AIDS pandemic. The group works to improve the lives of people with AIDS through direct action, medical research, treatment and advocacy, ...
* Center for Constitutional Rights * Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador * Women's International League for Peace and Freedom * Black Radical Congress * Jobs with Justice *
NARAL Pro-Choice America Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America and commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, politics, political action, and advocacy efforts to op ...
* School of the Americas Watch * Center for Artistic Revolution * Coalition Against Militarism in Our Schools *
Critical Resistance Critical Resistance (CR) is a U.S. based organization with the stated goal of abolishing the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters in New York City, Los ...
* Prometheus Radio Project


See also

* List of anti-war organizations


References


External links


Official Website
{{anti-war Anti-militarism Anti–Vietnam War groups Non-profit organizations based in Boston Philanthropic organizations based in the United States 1967 establishments in Massachusetts Organizations established in 1967