Resist Information

Resist supports grassroots organizations on the frontlines of the movement for social justice. We believe that through organizing, direct action, and creativity, the power of communities can and will build a better world. Resist has always been a different type of foundation. Our story begins in 1967 when the "Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority" was issued to support draft resistance in opposition to the war in Vietnam. Signed by over 20,000 people, the Call mobilized activists and academics across the country and became a central document in the 1968 conspiracy trial of the "Boston Five" comprised of Reverend William Sloan Coffin, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Michael Ferber, Marcus Raskin, and Mitchell Goodman, who all soon became five of Resist’s founders. Other signers and founding members included Grace Paley, Noam Chomsky, Robert Lowell, Barbara Guest, and Allen Ginsberg. During the course of the Vietnam War, as grassroots activism exploded across the country, Resist evolved too and supported radical visionary activists from coast to coast. Over time, Resist provided support to hundreds of groups, starting with resistance to the Vietnam War and quickly expanding to the civil rights movement and beyond. By the 1970s, Resist had broadened its scope dramatically by tying together the unequal distribution of power and money at home with a system of US domination abroad. Throughout this history, Resist has provided critical early funding to some of the most influential progressive organizations in the US – many of which have gone on to make history themselves.