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The Nonprofit Sector and the March Toward Tyranny

By Michael C. Gilbert, May 2004
 

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A year ago I wrote an appeal to my readers, who represent an enormous breadth of leadership and vision in the nonprofit sector, to reach outside the boundaries defined by the conventional roles of their organizations to oppose the attack on Iraq by the United States Government. Hundreds of you criticized me, in many cases viciously and in full capital letters. Many hundreds more praised me for taking a position and for speaking out on something that they themselves had been feeling. If you remained engaged with me, then I thank you either way.

Today, I am taking my call a step further.

I believe the United States is on a course toward tyranny and oppression, both inside this country and internationally. I believe that the nonprofit sector is more than an artifact of the tax code and cheap postal rates; I believe that there is a moral core to the sector founded upon the civil framework that allows the sector to thrive. I am hoping and praying that starting from this moral core we can find the courage to take action and help the country change course.

Let's take each of these strongly phrased assertions in turn.

The March Toward Tyranny:

Is it too strong to say that the U.S. is on a course toward tyranny and oppression? I don't think so. I think it's high time that it wasn't just right wing talk show hosts, televangelists, and the President of the United States that can get away with using strong moral language to talk about the direction we are taking. I'm sick of progressive voices being criticized and marginalized when we choose to speak plainly about what's happening.

Here are some things that have happened in just the last few weeks (*):

The same five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court who installed George W. Bush ruled that the Republican Pennsylvania legislature can legally gerrymander congressional districts to assure that two thirds of the states congressional delegation will be Republicans, even though that party holds the loyalty of the minority of voters in the state.

We learned that the so called PATRIOT act, which has gutted many of the basic civil liberties of which Americans should be proud, has gag rule elements that have been used to prevent the ACLU from discussing publicly a case that it is bringing against the PATRIOT act itself.

It's becoming increasingly clear that the U.S government is directly responsible for the torture of prisoners of war in addition to sending people abroad to countries where torture is practiced.

U.S. government leaders have condoned assassination and extra-judicial killing, through outright support of those policies by the state of Israel, through the gathering of former assassins from South Africa and Chile in the role of U.S. paid mercenaries in Iraq, and through the appointment of death squad protector John Negroponte as ruler of, or rather ambassador to, Iraq.

Our government is now asking the Supreme Court to give it the power to imprison any person for any period of time, with no rights under either the U.S Constitution or international law, and with no legal procedures for establishing their status or their guilt, except for the assertion of a government official.

The Bush administration, after brushing off a critique of the Union of Concerned Scientists and Nobel Laureates that they have been subverting science for the benefit of big business, decides that the way to solve the crisis of endangered species of wild salmon is to count hatchery salmon as part of the wild numbers.

The Federal Elections Commission tried to use the election laws to restrict the ability of any nonprofit organization from criticizing the President and his policies during an election year.

Local governments and police, with the support and encouragement of the federal government, continue to confuse protestors with terrorists and to enact ever more draconian restrictions on free speech and freedom of assembly.

The evidence mounts that the Bush administration hid the true costs of Medicare reform from Congress, much like it did with the war in Iraq. The deficit mounts, Republican insiders boast about crippling the government, and the rich get richer.

George W. Bush cannot think of a single thing that he has done wrong or a single thing for which to apologize.

The commission charged with overseeing the new -- demonstrably hackable and untrustworthy -- electronic voting machines that will be used by a significant portion of the U.S. electorate says it is too underfunded to prevent widespread problems in the upcoming presidential election and in any case lacks the authority to do anything.

While not everyone will agree that these events and hundreds like them represent a "march toward tyranny", as I believe they do, most people will find them reprehensible, if not horrifying.

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector:

The question I'm considering is this: What role, if any, does the nonprofit sector have in responding to this threat? Many people who are as alarmed as I am about these issues would tell me that, while individual organizations might, according to their mission, have a calling to respond, the sector as a whole does not. They would tell me that there is no moral center to the nonprofit sector and these matters are therefore none of our business. I think they are mistaken.

Nonprofit organizations, regardless of their mission, are founded on the idea that, while reasonable people may disagree about what constitutes charity and education, we do agree on the civil framework that allows us to pursue our different interpretations of charitable and educational purposes in the context of nonprofit work.

I believe that while the institutional shells of the nonprofit sector will undoubtedly survive, the civil framework that allows it to thrive is being destroyed by this march toward tyranny. For example:

A substantial portion of the funding of the U.S. nonprofit sector comes from the federal government. It's very clear that this funding is in serious jeopardy as deficits soar to fund the war industry and tax cuts for the rich. This was the argument I made in my editorial last year about the war, but it goes much deeper than that.

Advocacy organizations in particular, but nonprofits of all kinds rely upon the freedom of assembly and freedom of speech to thrive. Neighborhood organizations should not have to worry about police infiltration in their meetings, and hospitals should not have to worry about having abortion records seized.

Nonprofits depend upon a culture of responsibility, from the perspective of the question "what can I do?" as opposed to "who can I blame?". The culture of suspicion, aggression, and xenophobia being fostered is eroding the fundamental civil values on which our sector depends.

What sort of nonprofits will be permitted in a world of indefinite detention or one party rule? Will we need de facto party approval to form an organization or to have a meeting? Will controversial board members disappear? What sort of daily compromise of your mission will you learn to accept in order to survive?

What about our international organizations? What credibility will American relief workers and volunteers have if the world comes to see us as corrupt servants of big business and criminal partners with whatever tyrannies suit us?

What We Can Do:

We don't need to change the missions of our organizations. We just need to stop pretending that what is happening is none of our business. We don't need to devote substantial resources to this. We all know that this is a time of scarcity for everyone but the wealthy. We don't need to agree on every narrow issue. We just need to see the big picture. We don't need to use my language because it can sound harsh to some people. We need to use whatever language we require in order to speak out. Finally, we don't need to struggle to get our organizations to take a formal position, although that would be nice. We just need to do what we can within the context of our work.

There are organizations that will never be able to take even the smallest step to oppose. Just as there are people who use their right to free speech to try to erode that very right, there are nonprofit organizations whose missions are consistent with the unravelling of the civil framework that allows them to do their work. There are also nonprofits whose mission is to directly serve the private interests that are benefitting from the current regime.

If you are with one of the many organizations who concern themselves directly with these issues, then the ideas that follow are only of importance if you want to do coalition work with groups that are focused on other things. Your work is so important right now. You play an important role in the fate of the world. Thank you.

If you are like most organizations, you are in the same situation that Nonprofit Online News is in. It's not our mission to try to avert tyranny in the United States, but we are called to do something nevertheless.

Some things you can do include:

Rewrite this editorial in your own language, since my language is not to everyone's taste. Circulate it among your colleagues, your board members, your volunteers. Have lunch time discussions about it. Don't look for consensus. Just find the people who want to do something. Build an informal network of such people and keep them talking.

Include something about this crisis in your newsletters. It doesn't have to be a headline issue unless you decide to take a bold position. But include something in every issue. There is something powerful about reaching out beyond your mission to help your supporters see the greater context of things. Give people something simple they can do. They can add themselves to that network of yours.

Bring this issue up with your colleagues at other organizations and in professional associations. Remind them that the very framework that allows them to do their work is in jeopardy.

Take some time to find the deepest and most immediate connections between these issues and the mission and vision of your organization. Chances are good that they will connect with your vision in some way, even if they don't connect with your day to day operation. See if there is a way to take an official position, even if it's a narrow one.

Send your ideas and your actions to me and, if I get enough interesting ones, I will list them in a followup piece. Send your clippings and your own statements about these issues. Send me copies of newsletters where you touch on them. We need all the help we can get.

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