In the decades since World War II, the United States has amassed the most sophisticated and expensive military in human history and employed its military, intelligence, diplomatic, and economic power to wage a costly arms race with the former Soviet Union, dominate the global arms trade, impose devastating sanctions and embargoes against regimes it despises, overthrow democratically-elected governments, and make unholy alliances with corrupt and repressive rulers who serve US national interests. Meanwhile, during those same years, an individual armed only with an inquiring mind, a great intellect, dogged determination, a small staff, a prolific pen, and a laughably minuscule budget has
provided millions of ordinary yet extraordinary people around the world with the ability to achieve
freedom and democracy through nonviolent action.
Gene Sharp, a major theorist and strategist of nonviolence since Gandhi, is the scholar whose name is synonymous with the politics of nonviolent action. His monographs, booklets, books and those of his colleagues at the Albert Einstein Institution have been translated into 30 languages. His writings, consultations, trainings, and underground workshops have contributed enormously to nonviolence
movements and nonviolent revolutions around the world — in The Philippines, Burma, Palestine, Serbia, Georgia, the Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan. From the 3-volume tome The Politics of Nonviolent Action to the 88-page booklet "From Dictatorship to Democracy" that explains how nonviolent resistance can be used to undermine repressive regimes, Gene and the Albert Einstein Institution have had a profound impact on the pedagogy of nonviolence as well as on events in the world’s public
squares.
Our lives have been touched, enriched and shaped by Gene Sharp and the work of the Albert Einstein Institution as they have guided, informed and gathered us in the growing nonviolent movements found on every continent. But we have just learned that the Institution faces an unsustainable financial shortfall and its board, in September, must seriously consider whether to close its doors. The staff has been cut back to two, including Gene. If the Institution is to continue, it needs a minimum of $250,000 for the coming year. Most of us had assumed that such influential work was well endowed and funded. We were wrong.
Absent government support or sufficient foundation grants, we must turn to that uniquely fitting and appropriate force that epitomizes nonviolence — people power. As surely as we believe in the power of nonviolence, we believe also that a simple, straight-forward appeal to you, to your networks and your institutions can generate the funds to sustain the work of Gene Sharp and the Albert Einstein Institution.
Please send in a check today. And circulate this appeal to others by e-mail or the postal service. With September soon upon us, the timeliness of this appeal cannot be stressed too strongly. As we have learned in our study and practice of nonviolence, we must be prepared and ready for that special moment in history. That moment is today.
In gratitude to Gene and the Albert Einstein Institution,
Elise Boulding
Carol Bragg
Dorothy F. Cotton
Richard Deats
Marjorie Swann Edwin
David Hartsough
Bernard LaFayette, Jr.
George Lakey
Mary Lord
Jim Lawson
Michael True
To: The Albert Einstein Institution
427 Newbury Street
Boston, MA 02115
Enclosed is:
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For online credit card donations, go to www.aeinstein.org
Your gift is tax deductible.
