Resistance

Social movements need an infrastructure to survive

The political Right currently runs the country. That’s very annoying, but pretending it isn’t true is foolhardy. What is truly annoying is that in the late 1970s some of us were giving speeches and writing articles explaining that rightists intended…

Organizing Advice: What Can I Do?

The Right’s many groups organize on a wide variety of specific issues, from education, the environment, civil and human rights, immigration, and criminal justice to developing new constituencies such as fathers and conservative people of color.

Press Release: Case in Defense of LGBTQI Human Rights Moves Forward with Critical Support from Political Research Associates’ Ground Breaking Research

Oral argument on motions for summary judgment in Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Lively, a federal lawsuit in which Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is suing Scott Lively, a U.S.-based anti-…

Statement from PRA on the 2016 Election

This is a difficult moment for justice-minded people and anyone who believes in democracy. A man who ran an insurgent campaign as a racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, and anti-establishment demagogue is now president-elect of the United States.

Ground Rules and Tips for Challenging the Right

No one organization “controls” the Right. No single funder is “behind” the Right. Some large organizations are important, but many others appear to be more influential than they really are. Recognize that there are multiple networks of organizations…

Taking on Patriot Movement Talking Points

Responding to Patriot Movement claims on militias and gun rights, rural economics, the Constitution, public lands, and conspiracy theories.

What time is it?

Why we can’t ignore the momentum of the Right

Broadly speaking, the consensus is that we’re in a time of great instability, revolt, and possibility. History teaches us that in times like these, we need to be both bold and vigilant. Authoritarian, chauvinistic, and bigoted movements assert…

Beyond Trump

Disrupt, Defuse, Compete

To defeat the current upsurge in right-wing populism, progressives will need to disrupt, defuse, and – critically – compete for portions of its constituency.

Common Sense Security

Plan for the worst; work and hope for the best. Here are some specific suggestions for protecting yourself and your projects.

The Art of Activism: Asad Badat

Asad Badat, the artist behind the cover of the Summer 2015 issue, says he’s always seen himself as “a passionate observer who has romantic eyes for beauty.” Recently, though, he’s departed from this observatory position, opting instead to use his…

The Politics of Stories

A White woman with short blond hair wearing a green t-shirt and orange sleeveless jacket sitting in front of some bushes.

The Art of Activism: Helen Zughaib

Helen Zughaib came to her longtime home in Washington, D.C., by way of many other nations. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, she also lived in Iraq, Kuwait, Greece and France, before coming to the United States to earn her BFA at Syracuse University in 1981…

PRA Founder Jean Hardisty's Reflections on the Last 30 Years

This interview with PRA founder Jean Hardisty was published in our Fall/Winter 2011 newsletter, celebrating PRA’s 30th anniversary. It is republished here in honor of Jean, who passed away in March

Know Your Neighbors Hits the Road

As the U.S. Right’s global impact on the lives of women, LGBTQ people, and people of color increases, the pressing question is: “What can we do?” Know Your Neighbors—a collaborative project between PRA and Soulforce—aims to respond.

The Art of Activism: David Bacon

For more than 30 years, David Bacon has been writing about and photographing people who are displaced by poverty in Mexico and choose to cross into the United States in search of a better life.

To Shock the Heart of the Nation

A group of protesters led by Dr. Rev. William Barber II

An Interview with Rev. Dr. William Barber II, President, North Carolina NAACP

The Art of Activism: Rommy Torrico

This issue’s cover artist, Rommy Torrico, is the graphics and new media director for the Collier County Neighborhood Stories Project (CCNSP), based in southwest Florida.

The Gospel of James Baldwin

An Interview with Dr. E.L. Kornegay Jr.

A portrait of James Baldwin

Kornegay was drawn to study the work of the writer James Baldwin (1924-1987) through a comment made by the founder of Black liberation theology, James H. Cone, who once said that Baldwin taught him how to write. Kornegay was intrigued: “That took me…

Small Town Cross Roads/Moving Up, Fighting Back

Creating a Path to LGBTQ Youth Liberation

In Small Town Cross Roads, Southerners On New Ground (SONG) explores the realities and dreams of queer people who live in small Southern towns like West Monroe. Echoing SONG’s findings, FIERCE also lifts up challenges faced by LGBTQ youth in rural…

Don't Miss PRA at Creating Change!

Headed to the Creating Change conference in Houston this week? Don’t miss PRA’s workshops!

My Debt to Dr. King

As an Asian-American, I’m often cast as an ally rather than a stakeholder when I show up at Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations. Occasionally, someone will even come right out and thank me for showing up, like I’m doing folk a favor or something…

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

As many of us enjoy the long weekend, we are called to remember Dr. King’s extraordinary role in the movement that dismantled Jim Crow segregation and secured civil rights for African Americans. But we also remember MLK’s broader vision for…

Long Walk To Freedom

What African Sexual Minorities Can Learn from Tata Mandela

Mandela’s vision extended to all those who continue to pursue long walks to freedom. Mandela championed the human rights of all people, whether Black, White, straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or intersex. He lived to see the day when…

"Klansville USA": An Interview With David Cunningham

David Cunningham became interested in the Ku Klux Klan while conducting research for his dissertation at the University of North Carolina. He originally focused on how the FBI dealt with the Civil Rights Movement, but his research led to a…

Confronting the Right Across Generations

Spencer Sunshine Interviews Walter Reeves

In 1990, when I was a teenager, I met and began working with Walter Reeves and other members of Neighbors Network—an anti-Klan, anti-Nazi group based in Atlanta, GA. Reeves was its co-chair of education and outreach from 1989 until the group’s…

Celebrating the Movement Mandela

We pause this day to celebrate Nelson Mandela, “Madiba,” and to reflect on what his life and the South African freedom movement has to teach us. Inevitably, this involves reflecting on our own lives and our own social justice commitments.

Thoughts From PRA's Founder

Looking back, what do you think PRA’s most memorable impact was?

Basta Dobbs!: An Interview with Roberto Lovato

Last year, a coalition of Latino/a groups successfully fought to remove anti-immigrant pundit Lou Dobbs from CNN. Political Research Associates Executive Director Tarso Luís Ramos spoke to Presente.org co-founder Roberto Lovato to find out how they…

Activists Sue Denver Over Civil Liberties Violations

Since the successful street demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999, police and federal agencies have relied on aggressive and unconstitutional tactics to disperse, disrupt, and dissuade popular protest. Last…

The Montana Human Rights Network

Fighting the Far Right with Research

In April 2005, Kevin McGuire, an engineering student at the local state university, ran for the Bozeman, Mon. elementary school board. He was a newcomer in town, hailing from Santa Rosa, Calif., and part of the white flight flowing into the state.…

A Call to Defend Democracy and Pluralism

by the Blue Mountain Working Group Coordinated by Chip Berlet Jean V. Hardisty Suzanne Pharr Loretta Ross November 1994 We are a group of individuals interested in joining with others to rebuild a multi-issue movement for progressive social change…

Research

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