The Right Has A Plan To Shut Down Progressive Civil Society

Attacks on Palestine solidarity are the opening salvo in the right’s stated plan to suppress social justice groups

By Negin Owliaei & Maya Schenwar, Truthout

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, after a campaign in which Trump threatened the press, the left and “the enemy within,” 204 Republicans and 15 Democrats in the House of Representatives decided to hand a gift to his incoming administration — one that could be used to squash any kind of dissent.

The dangerous gift, HR 9495, is known as the “nonprofit killer bill” because it would unilaterally give the Treasury secretary the power to strip the tax-exempt status from any nonprofit they decide is a “terrorist-supporting organization,” all without due process for the organization in question.

Truthout has been covering this legislation in its many iterations since last spring, when its predecessor, HR 6408, passed the House with overwhelming support but stalled in the Senate. We’ve also covered the landscape from which this bill emerged. While the threat of its use under a Donald Trump presidency is particularly alarming for a broad range of groups, this bill has to be understood as part of a bipartisan (and transnational) push to stifle the Palestine solidarity movement.

The newer version that the House passed on November 21 includes an add-on that might help move it more quickly through the Senate, postponing tax deadlines for American citizens detained abroad. While a separate bill to do just that has already cleared the Senate, a spokesperson for the body’s majority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer, told The New York Times that he’s opposed to the nonprofit portion of the bill. While it likely won’t come up in this legislative session, Republicans may raise the bill again next year when they hold both bodies of Congress. A wide coalition of nonprofits was able to persuade some House Democrats who previously supported the legislation to vote against it this time around. That coalition will continue to advocate against the bill as it goes forward.

Regardless of what happens with this particular piece of legislation, nonprofits, including independent media, can’t rest easy. The Trump administration, and the right more broadly, still have plenty of tools at their disposal to attack organizers. And while Palestine solidarity activists may have a wider target on their backs, organizers for any causes even remotely associated with the left should be paying attention.