NPEU has been closely monitoring the Trump administration and Congress’ hostile moves towards nonprofit organizations. Most recently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) have launched separate investigations designed to intimidate hundreds of non-government organizations and stifle constitutionally protected advocacy and protest. As Republicans at the national and state level increasingly use the language and tools of counterterrorism to attack organized civil society, the experience of nonprofit organizations in resisting such attacks in other countries offers important lessons and demonstrates the importance of coalition building in these times..

We hope you join us on Tuesday, July 29 from 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST, as NPEU’s Political Engagement Team is honored to welcome Dr. Lauren Van Metre for an online lecture and discussion on “Confronting Authoritarianism: The Role of Think Tanks”. Dr. Van Metre is the former Director for Peace, Climate and Democratic Resilience at the National Democratic Institute. She is also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and an adjunct professor at George Washington University. She has worked on major policy initiatives at the Pentagon, the State Department, and the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Her lecture will present her research from Poland and Brazil, two countries where coalitions of nonprofit organizations successfully defended against government repression of their work and reversed the expansion of far-right authoritarianism. In the discussion that follows, we look forward to sharing perspectives from our membership on how we as a union might organize against similar attacks.

This event is part of NPEU's Political Engagement Team's Summer School Series. We hope you'll join the live lecture; while it won't be recorded, we'll be sharing supporting resources.