From the Executive Director
PRA At Thirty: Here For The Long Haul
 

PRA first opened its doors in the fall of 1981, under the name Midwest Research.  The previous November, a powerful coalition of conservative religious, business, and ideological interests calling itself the New Right had shattered forty years of liberal consensus by propelling Ronald Reagan to the presidency of the United States.  A young political scientist who closely monitored the rising conservative tide had anticipated the right-wing shift in American culture and politics. Finding that both the academy and liberal media institutions blithely disregarded the insurgent rightists as fringe actors unworthy of serious attention, Jean Hardisty decided to create a new kind of social justice organization: a research institute that studied the U.S. Right in order to equip social justice groups to fight back.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Jean and PRA put the right wing on the map for many social justice groups in the United States.  Before PRA, terms like “Nazis,” “fascists,” “reactionaries,” “bigots,” and “homophobes” were used more or less as epithets and more or less interchangeably.  This apparently resulted in cathartic chants at rallies, but not much in the way of nuanced or useful analysis about the organized opposition to the civil rights, feminist, gay rights, peace, and other social justice movements of the 1970s.  Readers of PRA’s materials have come to appreciate the distinctive agendas and strategies of the various right-wing sectors, and to consider the opportunities presented by those differences and disagreements.

PRA hasn’t exactly been alone over the past three decades. But while various groups have arisen during that time to offer a media counterpoint to right-wing campaigns, from the Moral Majority to the Minutemen, PRA has dedicated itself to producing deep, incisive analysis to inform social justice movement strategies rather than sound bites.  This is not to diminish the importance of sophisticated messaging or to pass over our own substantial engagement with news media outlets, but to note that our primary audience has long been social justice changemakers: from grassroots organizers to opinion leaders to public officials. 

We’ve also had the good fortune to be able to work closely with a number of research institutes and independent investigators who bring deep expertise and commitment to their work on the U.S. Right.  We’re sorry to say that a good number of those institutes have closed their doors over the years, leaving PRA—and the social justice movement—with fewer sources of reliable research. 

Over our thirty-year history, PRA has produced groundbreaking work and has collaborated with advocates in the areas of racial and immigrant justice, civil liberties, reproductive justice, LGBT rights, and economic justice. It’s satisfying to take stock of and celebrate our accomplishments.  To that end, this issue of PRAccess includes a timeline of some of our best moments and an interview with PRA founder and President Emerita Jean Hardisty. 

However, the current state of the country doesn’t allow for more than a brief pause for self-congratulation.  In many ways, these have been three punishing decades for social and economic justice.  We find ourselves again in a period of powerful right-wing resurgence. While this is a disappointing state of affairs, the fact is that PRA was founded in a moment not unlike this one.  Indeed, this is what we were made for.  It took the country over thirty years to get into this mess, and PRA is committed to continuing our vital work to help us get out of it—if necessary, for another thirty years!

As we look to the current and future challenges facing PRA, several issues are at the forefront of our concerns:

Economy: The free-market deregulatory agenda of the U.S. Right has wrecked the domestic economy and created a global financial crisis.  As economic justice issues increasingly occupy center stage, PRA is looking at ways to strengthen the resources we offer changemakers active in this arena.  At the same time, PRA, like many of our allies, finds itself buffeted by the same economic conditions that have caused millions to lose their jobs and homes.  While right-wing money continues to flow and shore up conservative institutions, key pieces of progressive movement infrastructure, like PRA, find it increasingly difficult to attract foundation support.  PRA has always been disproportionately reliant on individual support and we are likely to become even more so in the years ahead.  We may also need to become more selective regarding the range of issues and social justice movement sectors we can effectively support.

Communications:  The twenty-four hour news cycle and rise of various digital social media have continued to generate wonderful new communications and organizing opportunities.  Yet those come with real challenges for those of us who produce and value comprehensive, strategic research.  To maximize PRA’s value to social justice changemakers, we must continue to innovate with communications approaches that meet people—and their devices—wherever they are, without trading analysis for mere alerts or strategy for sound bites.

Organizational Change: As we honor our founder, Jean Hardisty, on the occasion of PRA’s thirtieth birthday, we have begun the transition of another longtime staff member, PRA Senior Analyst Chip Berlet.  Chip has been a leading expert and commentator on the U.S. Political Right for over three decades and has been an anchor at PRA for the organization’s lifetime.  We honor his outsized contributions in defense of human rights, wish him well on his new adventures, and are scheming about ways to collaborate in the future.  Of course, Chip can never be replaced. PRA’s current challenge is, in part, one of generational change.  We have been developing a new generation of researchers and analysts to carry on the work initiated by Jean and Chip, and will need to redouble our efforts in this area. In recent years, PRA has provided a home for new or previously unknown talented researchers such as Kapya Kaoma and Thomas Cincotta, authors of recent exposés on homophobia and Islamophobia, respectively.  Despite the tough economic times, we aim to expand our family of contributors in the coming year by putting the “A” back in PRA—reviving the research associates model from our early organizational history.  Interim Research Director Pam Chamberlain will play a lead role in organizing and developing this talent pool.

As we look to the future, all of us at PRA are excited about the opportunities to make a real difference in a time of tremendous challenge and need. We stand on the shoulders of giants, taking inspiration from their examples as we retool ourselves to be as innovative and effective in the decades ahead as we have been these past thirty years.  In this issue we honor some of those who have been with us on this journey and invite all of you to come with us on the journey ahead.

Fall 2011
Volume 10, Number 2

In This Issue:

• Reflections On The Last Thirty Years
• From the Executive Director
• Celebrating PRA's Thirtieth Anniversary
• PRA in the News
• Download PRAccess (PDF)