🏡💚 Stand up, fight back
When our entire movement is under attack, what do we do?
Earlier this week, rumors began swirling of Executive Orders by the Trump administration that would directly target climate and environmental justice groups. It now seems they are most likely preparing to release these on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22.
We still don’t know exactly what is being proposed, but the main idea seems to be to go after the tax-exempt status of nonprofit environmental groups (some rumors also indicate a broader range of target groups, including immigrant organizations and those supporting Palestine). This 501(c)(3) status, granted by the IRS, exempts nonprofits from federal income tax and allows them to receive tax-deductible donations. By stripping groups of their tax-exempt status, Trump is aiming to destroy the structures that most organizations rely on for their funding.
Can Trump actually do this with a stroke of a pen? Technically, no, but that doesn’t seem to have stopped him so far. As Jeffrey Tenenbaum details in a really helpful blog post, “neither the President, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, or the IRS have the ability to revoke the federal tax-exempt status of any entity through Executive Order.” There are established procedures to remove federal tax exemption, all of which require a case-by-case audit with multiple routes of appeal. As noted by others, Congress has also passed legislation that prohibits the IRS from “target[ing] groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs.”
While the environmental Executive Orders are just rumored for now, they come on the heels of very similar and more widely reported rumors that the administration is seeking to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University. Earlier this week, Harvard rejected a list of demands from the White House that they make changes to hiring, admissions, and curriculum. Trump swiftly froze $2 billion in funding to the university, and on Tuesday began speculating that the university should lose its tax-exempt status. In a social media post, he wrote “Perhaps Harvard should lose its Tax Exempt Status and be Taxed as a Political Entity if it keeps pushing political, ideological, and terrorist inspired/supporting “Sickness?” Remember, Tax Exempt Status is totally contingent on acting in the PUBLIC INTEREST!”
The IRS is reportedly “making plans” to rescind Harvard’s tax-exempt status. The acting IRS commissioner, Gary Shapley, was picked just this week following the resignation of the previous commissioner. It seems extremely likely that his appointment was made with certain conditions and expectations of how he will respond to these demands.
All of this sets the stage for the executive attack on the climate and environmental movement in the coming days. It seems both very unlikely that any Executive Orders along these lines will be legally enforceable, AND that the increasingly authoritarian administration will do whatever they can to not let the law get in the way of their political agenda. That means we have to take it seriously as a credible threat to our partners and our own organizations.
It’s also worth mentioning the additional steps the administration has taken in recent weeks to undermine climate action. When Trump first took office, he promised to “terminate the green new deal,” immediately freezing all funds related to the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Those funds are still being contested and held up in court. Earlier this week, a judge blocked the EPA from clawing back funding related to the federal ‘green bank,’ directing the money to be released to grantees as soon as Thursday. This was halted on Wednesday, with the funds remaining in limbo.
Last week, Trump signed a different Executive Order titled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach,” ordering the Attorney General to “stop the enforcement of State laws” on climate change. This includes explicitly calling out California’s cap-and-trade system, as well as New York and Vermont’s climate superfund legislation — a proposal that is also moving through the California legislature with a lot of excitement and support, including from our coalition. Interestingly, one of the biggest impacts of that Executive Order so far has been to motivate Governor Newsom to commit to renewing cap-and-trade this year, something he had previously said was “not absolutely necessary” and seemed reluctant to take on.
With all of this swirling, it is totally reasonable and justified for you and your organization to keep your head down, lay low, and try not to draw too much attention. I recommend exactly the opposite. Yes, definitely double down on digital security and privacy — take whatever steps you can to protect staff and especially anyone that may be more vulnerable. Yes, definitely consider your strategy and collect information on what others are doing. But if they do make a direct assault on our movement, more than anything I hope to see us stand up and fight back.
And look — obviously Trump is doing this to spark a reaction. While it may seem insanely sadistic to try to gut the environmental movement on Earth Day, yes, sadism is the point. They want to “trigger the libs,” and they want to create confusion, turmoil, and paranoia. But responding to this with a united front does not just ‘play into his hands’. On the contrary, I think Trump severely underestimates the widespread support for environmentalism. While urgent climate action can still feel very remote at times, there is a common sense that clean air, clean water, animals, immigrant communities, children’s health, wild places, and the natural world are all worth protecting and advocating for. That’s a sentiment that crosses ideological, geographic, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. And by going after all of that, Trump unwittingly provides us with an opportunity to stand united in solidarity.
Many of us talk about the inherent contradictions of the ‘nonprofit industrial complex’: the ways in which nonprofits, including our movement groups, are financially bound to the government through contracts and grants, and private wealth through foundations. We bemoan the way that this hinders change by ensuring our actions don’t stray too far outside the status quo and alienate those in power. Now, it seems our very existence might be threatening enough to the fascist regime that Trump and his cronies envision.
The Global South has long shown other economic models for their social movements, often producing and selling their own goods and services to fund their work. The labor movement has so much independent political power because it generates funding through dues from its members. Even some activist groups, like the Democratic Socialists of America, have gained some independence by relying mostly on membership dues for their revenue.
We don’t need to figure this all out by next week, but it should prompt us to think about what it means to sustain our movement without the structures and institutions that previously held them up. And if these Executive Orders do come out, I hope we raise hell in the meantime.
If our organizations are under attack, what do we do?
If frontline and immigrant communities are under attack, what do we do?
If our planet is under attack, what do we do?
Source: Common Dreams via Getty Images
WHAT WE’RE READING
The rise of end times fascism (The Guardian) — I can’t recommend enough this article by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor to understand the ideological underpinnings of the far right, Big Tech, and the Trump administration
A ‘calamity waiting to unfold’: Altadena residents with standing homes fear long-term health effects (LA Times)
NYC seizes negligent landlord's building for first time in 7 years (Gothamist)
The Climate Crisis Hits Tenants Hardest. They’re Fighting Back. (Shelterforce)
Feel free to reply any time! I always enjoy hearing from people and getting any feedback/questions/additional thoughts.
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