This would give the state immense power to ban any kind of non-profit organization that they don’t agree with. Even if they don’t go after all the left-wing organizations, that threat hanging above their heads would seriously limit the scope of their mission and most would probably be forced to remain very small and unnoticed. Obviously this violates the 1st Amendment, but I doubt that the government or the SCOTUS would see it that way.
The House already passed it with overwhelming bipartisan support!!
I’m talking here about a bipartisan legislation the House passed last week (382-11) & that was intro’d last week in the Senate – HR 6408 & S. 1436
Reminder: US charitable organizations — like ALL US entities — are already barred, by law, from providing material support for terror & already face intense scrutiny.
The goal of the new legislation is to dispense with the due process (incl the need for evidence) afforded under law to targeted groups, empowering a single US official to act as prosecutor, judge, jury, & executioner of US orgs whose viewpoints that official disagrees with.
https://twitter.com/LaraFriedmanDC/status/1783129420598837506
wtf is happening in Europe and the US? The US government is really going mask off fascist now, and a lot of European countries seem to want to emulate the worst parts of the US. I really thought it would take longer. I’m staying in Africa where it’s safe.
im gonna fuck off to some island in the pacific. taiwan maybe, im sure thats far enough away from the great satan’s reach
Well you might as well visit taiwan before it gets turned into the next ukraine
Watch MSF get labeled a terrorist supporting organization
Also literally any decolonial communist organization in the US
Hell probably even some left-ish lib ones.
Food-not-bombs will be in the first batch. They’ve been after them for fucking ever.
This shit flies through congress and $15 minimum wage eventually gets blocked by the parliamentarian.
Does anyone have any non twitter links about this? I saw one other but it was also just a twitter links. Lots of twitter links on hexbear today.
Edit: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr6408/summary
It’s a pretty short, and your link has a copy of the text. It looks like the Secretary (of the Treasury?) is given the power to terminate the non-profit status of any organization. The only requirements are to mail a letter to said organization stating that the Secretary think y’all are terrorists. The organization is given 90 days to convince the Secretary that they aren’t terrorists, otherwise non-profit designation is terminated. An extra-judicial appeals process through the (massively underfunded) IRS is defined. The last section basically states that terrorist designation is still appealable through judicial system. Fuzzier on the implications of this last section. I’m not trained as a lawyer, so take all this with a massive grain of salt.
Hmmm. So we can just start mailing letters to the treasurer saying NED and all the nonprofit Israel orgs are terrorists maybe?
No. The Treasury is the one who mails the letters. Basically the non-profit gets notified that they’re losing tax-exempt status by mail. They then have 90 days to convince they Treasury Secretary that they are not in fact terrorists.
While the non-profit industrial complex sucks, this won’t be used to target the shitty ones (the ones most complicit in that complex). Instead, it will be used against advocacy groups, e.g. non-profits helping trans kids.
Keep in mind as well that if you want your organization to have an operating budget and not be individually liable if some right wing asshole sues you, you need to register some kind of legal entity that will hold and dispense the funds. For many orgs, this is a non-profit. They will use this to effectively limit your ability to raise and use funds without committing a crime or being personally liable (as in they take your car, your house, garnish your wages) for organizing activities.
Unfortunately, the left is very small in the US. Rather than create an impetus for strong underground cash-based networks, this will probably result in successful intimidation and the disposession of some of your comrades.
We have forgotten how to fight and have largely failed to integrate with the masses (such as they are), so if we want to succeed and survive in the imperial core, and I can’t stress this enough, we need to organize and educate as fast as we possibly can. Join a decent org, focus on political education and talking to young people and supporting taking action on issues relevant to them that intersect with socialist causes.
