Many have said that the rapid growth of the right wing in the US is due to its think tanks. Can we link our organizing to alternative “think tanks,” especially as we note an increasing tendency in the US “war on terror” to criminalize civil dissent.

The Latin America Solidarity Coalition asked Larry Birns, Director of the Washington-based Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), whether their research staff could help us analyze the apparently growing trend in Latin America to criminalize civil dissent under new counter-terrorism laws modeled on the USA Patriot Act and pushed by US diplomats.

For example, this spring several Peruvian activists were arrested coming home from a Bolivarian meeting in Venezuela and charged with terrorism. Several anti-privatization leaders in El Salvador were arrested (7/06). In March activists in Paraguay asked for international solidarity letters because they feared repression for a peaceful protest of soy monoculture at a Cargill plantation.

How much does the US harass pro-democracy efforts and in which nations? The LASC Coordinating Committee started a Respect Democracy Working Group , a Close the National Endowment for Democracy Working Group, the new National Haiti Campaign. Good, objective research is essential for this effort.

COHA responded that they have 30 research assistants/interns, and that they would welcome the opportunity to tackle these and other issues – a boon to all our US-based solidarity groups that have little or no research staff.

We often hear the comment: The Right Wing started early working with think tanks. Maybe the Left can do the same?