NACLA Turns 30
In a series of meetings held in
the fall of 1966, representatives
of Students for a Democratic
Society (SDS), the Student Non-
violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC) and the University
Christian Movement joined with a
group of returned Peace Corps vol-
unteers to found the North Ameri-
can Congress on Latin America. A
few months later, in February, 1967,
the first issue of the NACLA News-
letter-later to become NACLA’s
Latin America and Empire Report
and then NACLA Report on the
Americas-appeared. NACLA’s
young founders, immersed in a
movement which proclaimed its
independence of “anyone over thir-
ty,” probably never imagined that
the organization they founded
would some day cross the thresh-
hold between youth and middle age.
But it’s official, friends-NACLA
is 30 years old this year.
We are celebrating our birthday
in a number of ways. A series of
“anniversary essays,” inaugurated
in the September/October 1996
issue, looks back at some of the key
ideas and events that played a role
in shaping our views of the world
over these past 30 years. Our spe-
cial thirtieth anniversary issue–
July/August 1997-will offer a
wide-ranging set of interviews with
progressive activists and political
leaders across the hemisphere. In
addition, we are planning at least
one big benefit concert to be held in
New York sometime this fall, as
well as an anniversary conference,
in which the broader NACLA com-
munity can grapple with the issues
raised every two months in the
Report.
As usual, given the current fund-
ing climate, we rely more than ever
on you, the NACLA community, to
make this all happen. There are a
few things you can do right now to
help celebrate our landmark
anniversary, and to help support our
future development. For starters,
you can take out an ad in our com-
memorative thirtieth anniversary
issue. (See the bind-in card inside
the front cover.) Your ads-from
one-line greetings to full pagers–
will provide us with needed revenue
and, together with a collection of
commemorative interviews and
essays, help create a truly special
collector’s item. The bigger and bet-
ter this special issue, of course, the
more funds we can raise through its
distribution.
In addition, you have, or will
soon receive, a special thirtieth
anniversary request to support
NACLA’s work with a tax-deductible
contribution by joining or renewing
your membership to our donor pro-
gram, NACLA Associates. If you
haven’t made a donation to
NACLA before, or if it’s been a
while, we hope that this thirtieth
anniversary will provide the perfect
incentive and opportunity.
If you are already a member of
our donor program, you might con-
sider renewing at a higher level this
year in honor of the occasion. As
always, with a contribution of $100
or more, we will automatically
extend your subscription for a full
year. And, as is our custom, we will
be offering valuable premiums in
acknowledgment of each and every
gift. To further express our thanks,
all anniversary donations will be
recognized (separately from the ad
greetings) in the anniversary issue.
As we celebrate our anniversary
in this “post-Cold-War” era,
NACLA is still committed to
uncovering the truth about the
impact of U.S. and transnational
institutions on the peoples of the
Americas. We are equally commit-
ted to investigating the economic,
political and cultural forces at work
within Latin America itself. There
are few other places to turn for a
comprehensive progressive analysis
of the rise of civil society, the
impact of neoliberal policies, con-
tinued impunity and human rights
violations, or the strength of the
region’s indigenous movements.
And we are presenting this analysis
to an increasingly diverse audience
interested in the fate of progressive
movements and forces throughout
the region.
ew other alternative publica-
tions have a readership of
such loyalty, longevity and
diversity as NACLA’s. Our unique
journalistic-scholarly format is
reflected in our unusually eclectic
subscriber list, consisting of
activists, researchers, policymakers,
students, journalists and many oth-
ers. Indeed, while many like-minded
publications from the 1960s have
vanished, NACLA’s readers have
kept its project alive through their
subscriptions and contributions.
So when you read NACLA Report
on the Americas, and support
NACLA with your contributions,
you are reaffirming the vital com-
mitment of NACLA’s founders “to
encourage, produce and distribute
information designed to identify
and explain those elements and
relationships of forces in the United
States and Latin America which
inhibit and frustrate urgently needed
profound social change.” Even if
we’re over 30, you can still trust us
to bring you the most accurate,
complete and revealing coverage of
the difficult new era now unfolding
throughout the Americas.
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