Dear John, 

I believe PRA is prophetic and has been since its founding. Time and again I’ve seen that what PRA writes and talks about today enters the mainstream dialogue a few years later. PRA cautioned about the resurgent racist Right when many liberals and even progressives denied it. We took the threat of Trump seriously well ahead of the 2016 election, foresaw the overturning of Roe, and warned about militant attempts to stop certification of the 2020 election before the January 6th insurrection occurred. 

PRA has also been a leader in exposing the alliance between the Israeli Right and the anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish U.S. Christian Zionist movement.  

I write to you with a very heavy heart. I mourn for the more than 2 million people under siege in Gaza where Israel's large-scale, indiscriminate military assault has killed more than twelve thousand Palestinians and countless more are surviving in fear and desperation. I mourn for the 1,200 Israelis killed, wounded, or kidnapped by Hamas in terrifying attacks on October 7th. None of these families or our communities will ever be the same. I resist our own government, as well as our media, colleges, and other institutions, targeting American Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and other conscientious objectors with shameful criminalization, intrusive surveillance, and punishing attacks on our freedoms. I resist dangerously escalating antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism.

All of this violence and pain renews and redoubles my commitment to PRA’s mission of building a just, inclusive, multiracial, and religiously plural democracy – so that bigotry and supremacy cease to divide our communities and limit our freedoms. 

One of the reasons I support PRA is because they partner in powerful ways with organizations on the ground. In the midst of many struggles for human rights, justice, and freedom, PRA presents the facts through careful research and thoughtful analysis, which is then used to inform movement strategies. Together, we need to build a powerful, disciplined front against injustice and authoritarianism. And, we need to keep on fighting until we win.

As Bernice Reagon and Sweet Honey in the Rock implore us in Ella’s Song: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes.”

This fall, PRA launched a brand new podcast, “Inform Your Resistance,” that presents its cutting edge research in a highly accessible, conversational format. First season episodes dive into the hardcore abortion “abolitionist” movement, racial capitalism, the far-right National Conservatism Movement, and the Christian Nationalist homeschooling movement. New episodes every two weeks.  Subscribe to the podcast by clicking here.

This podcast is critical because we need our movements, and our movements need PRA’s analysis and strategic counsel. By giving to PRA, we are saying, we believe in you; we believe that the work is essential. 

You and I may not be directly impacted by every issue PRA covers, whether it be attacks on reproductive justice or immigrant rights, increasing anti-Muslim bigotry, entrenched antisemitism, policing, or White paramilitary organizing, but you and I are at the very least affected by growing authoritarianism in this country that embodies all of what PRA researches.

As we head into the 2024 election year, it is more important than ever that PRA has the resources it needs to fuel our movements with research, analysis, and insights: the basic tools for creating winning strategies to defeat injustice and authoritarianism.

“Hearts open and fists up!” is a phrase I first heard at PRA and one that I embrace. PRA embodies this spirit in every aspect of their work. The staff put so much of their hearts into uncovering antidemocratic movements in loving service to our grassroots movements for democracy. 

With your support, PRA has expanded significantly over the past five years. As PRA builds on our past and looks to the future, it’s up to you and me to ensure PRA has resources to equip our social justice movements and leaders with timely, accessible, and actionable research and analysis.

As a longtime PRA donor, returning board member, current Board Chair, and former treasurer from years ago,  I know how committed PRA is to using every last bit of its resources in service to truth and partner organizations, working for justice and democracy. PRA puts its resources where its values are. I imagine you share these values and I ask that you make a gift today to help PRA continue and grow this critically important work.

Thank you again for your past support and for being a partner in this movement. 

Yours,

With hearts open and fists up.

Katherine Acey

PRA Board Chair

P.S. Join me to celebrate with PRA on Wednesday, December 13 at 5:00-6:30pm ET/ 2:00-3:30pm PT for Rooted in Resistance. This virtual event will feature PRA leadership and movement partners who will reflect on PRA’s work to block authoritarianism this year, and provide a peek into what’s coming next!