Founded in December 2003, the Backbone Campaign (BC) describes itself as “a grassroots effort to embolden citizens and elected officials to stand up for progressive values.”   The Executive Director of the Backbone Campaign is Bill Moyer (not the longtime PBS broadcaster Bill Moyers). A staunch opponent of Republican and conservative policies, Backbone’s  Moyer charges that President Bush tried to justify ...

The Alliance For Justice (AFJ) was founded in 1979 by Nan Aron, when its predecessor, the Council for Public Interest Law, decided to expand its activism beyond the statutes governing “public interest” nonprofit groups. Today AFJ describes itself as “a national association of over 100 organizations, representing a broad array of groups committed to progressive values and the creation of an ...

Founded in Boston in 1973 by Karen Nussbaum, “9to5, National Association of Working Women” began as a local group for female clerical workers but eventually grew into one of the largest national feminist organizations in America. One of its original members, Ellen Cassedy, attended Heather Booth‘s Midwest Academy, which trained radical activists in the tactics of direct action and community ...

An outgrowth of Britain’s anti-war movement, RESPECT — The Unity Coalition is a joint venture between the Socialist Workers Party and the Muslim Association of Britain. Founded in 2004, this London-based organization goes by the acronym RESPECT, which stands for its ideals of Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environment, Community, and Trade Unionism. The group’s aim is “to build a broad-based and inclusive alternative ...

Dedicated to “establishing and protecting the rights of all animals,” the Norfolk, Virginia-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animals rights organization in the world. Founded in 1980 and boasting a current membership of more than two million people, PETA describes itself as an international nonprofit charitable organization that maintains branch offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, ...

Established in 2004 to “communicate the actions, strategies, and philosophy of the animal liberation movement to the media and the public,” the North American Animal Liberation Press Office (NAALPO) acts as an information clearinghouse and propaganda machine for the secretive Animal Liberation Front (ALF), detailing and glorifying the philosophies, strategies, and destructive deeds of ALF’s mostly anonymous activists.  At the forefront ...

EarthSave International (ESI) is a California-based nonprofit agency founded in 1988 by the author and heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream fortune, John Robbins, who continues to serve as chairman emeritus of ESI’s board of directors. Robbins’ popular 1987 book, Diet for a New America, which counsels against meat consumption and condemns the inhumane conditions under which livestock are raised ...

The Animal Liberation Front (ALF) is an extreme animal-rights organization that is classified as a terrorist group by the FBI. Professing to be “nonviolent,” ALF identifies its main bases of operation as Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All told, it is active in at least 40 countries worldwide. ALF’s mission is “to effectively allocate resources (time and ...