Today’s message in Mondoweiss’s How Much Truth? campaign is a call for your donations by Bill Fletcher Jr., an internationally renowned writer and activist for racial and economic justice. It is a privilege to have Bill’s support; he has served in national leadership at the AFL-CIO, is an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com, Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, past president of TransAfrica Forum, and the author of many incisive articles and books. — Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz
If you’re like me, you don’t wake up in the morning hoping to understand less about the world around you—or yearning to shout in an echo chamber. I value Mondoweiss because their journalism not only says what needs to be said, but backs up the arguments with facts. I support the organization because I want them to reach millions more people.
I’ve learned, as I imagine you have, from stories like Mondoweiss’s coverage of student government elections in the West Bank, where they are “the only democratic bellwether of popular opinion, and are taken seriously both by the local population, and political analysts.”
And I never stop appreciating the documentation Mondoweiss provides, day after day, of how Israel’s violence pervades the lives of all who live under its relentless grip. But I know that if I want this valuable work to continue, and to grow, I have to invest in it.
Over the years I have found many people hold a magical assumption that political organizations can operate without their help. Too often, we assume that the tools our movement depends on are somehow just there—automatically—without our doing anything to support their existence. And even more, we imagine unconsciously that if the need increases the tools will expand and grow to meet that need.
When I took over the advocacy group TransAfrica Forum in 2002, we had a major job of raising the funds necessary to operate and expand the work at the forefront of the struggles for justice for the African World, i.e., the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
I quickly encountered a remarkable and dangerous paradox. Too many people held exceedingly high expectations as to what the organization should do, while at the same time being reluctant to financially back the work.
Just one example of the opportunities lost to this passivity: I was once visited by a delegation from south Cameroon in West Africa. They were engaged in a struggle with a government which marginalized the population of the southern part of the country. These activists made strong and convincing arguments as to why their struggle needed support. When I told them we had no funds for such a project and we would need to work together to raise resources, they looked at me stunned and speechless. They left my office and never returned.
It’s easy to make the assumption that someone else is giving the funds needed for organizations like Mondoweiss to survive, and to assume that survival is enough. But if we want to expand their influence for real change, it will take resources. Our opponents understand this, and they understand it very well.
Mondoweiss’s unique role is its coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the depth in which it examines the issues from the standpoint of the oppressed. Yet some readers have said that as much as they value the site, they will provide financial support only if it is on the verge of collapse. Knowing the pathbreaking, exceptional work of Mondoweiss, I cannot imagine letting it get to the precipice before contributing—and so I give regularly.
Mondoweiss needs our support as a practical way to work toward the goal of justice for Palestine.
It deserves your support and mine not only to avoid collapse; please join me in giving so that Mondoweiss’s work and its influence can grow.
Let’s show the world we want more truth, more impact, and more people won over to the cause of sane, just foreign policy.
Thanks in advance.
In solidarity,
Bill Fletcher, Jr., talk show host, writer and activist
P.S. Some people wonder if a small gift can make a difference. The fact is Mondoweiss needs donations of all sizes. Check out the chart below, which shows the tremendous impact of gifts of $120 or less.
The movement for freedom and justice in Palestine has grown and advanced dramatically but we must reach millions more people and change more minds. Mondoweiss can make that happen—but readers like you and me are the only source for the funds they need to do it. Please make your contribution today, now.
