The Republican chair of the Senate Committee for the Judiciary wants to invoke a law used to investigate W.E.B. Du Bois’s anti-war organization during the McCarthy era against a New York City advocacy and culture group.
The People’s Forum, a self-described “movement incubator” nonprofit, could soon find itself under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) following an appeal led by the President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa. Serving as the birthplace and locus for the Artists Against Apartheid movement, The People’s Forum has organized multiple large-scale pro-Palestinian demonstrations and cultural activities, including a display of 17,000 children’s shoes in Washington, DC, in a memorial of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military.
In an April 16 letter addressed to Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, Grassley accuses The People’s Forum and another anti-war organization, Code Pink, of acting in service of the Chinese Communist Party. Both groups denied the claim.
A spokesperson for the DOJ, which oversees the FBI, confirmed to Hyperallergic that the agency received Grassley’s letter but declined to comment further.
Grassley cites these alleged ties to argue that The People’s Forum could be compelled to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), a law enacted to combat Nazi propaganda in 1938 under the recommendation of the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities, which became associated with McCarthyist inquiries in the 1950s. Under FARA, groups or individuals working under foreign governments or with their funding to engage in political activity are required to register with the DOJ and make “periodic public disclosure” of their activities to influence public opinion. Noncompliance with a mandate to register under FARA could result in up to six months of imprisonment, fines, or other sanctions.
Manolo De Santos, executive director and founder of the People’s Forum, told Hyperallergic in an email that the organization has been transparent about its funding and never received funds from the Chinese government. De Los Santos said funding relies heavily on grassroots donations.
“We reject these false allegations and will not back down from our work,” De Los Santos told Hyperallergic. “We see these allegations for what they are: politically motivated attacks aimed at silencing our advocacy against genocide in Gaza and US imperialism worldwide.”
In his six-page letter, Grassley cites the 2023 New York Times report A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a US Tech Mogul seven times, along with several New York Post and Free Beacon hit pieces.
The NYT investigation claims that Neville Roy Singham, who founded the tech consultancy Thoughtworks and donated a portion of his wealth to The People’s Forum when he sold his company in 2017 and moved to China, has funded a global influence campaign that “defends China.” The report alleges that Singham — a US citizen living in Shanghai — works closely “with the Chinese government media machine and is financing its propaganda worldwide,” and has used shell companies to fund a network of nonprofits that allegedly parrot Chinese state propaganda. Singham’s wife, Jodie Evans, is a co-founder of Code Pink. Singham and Evans both denied that they work for or take funding from any political party or government.
In a statement, a Code Pink spokesperson told Hyperallergic that the organization is “neither funded nor influenced by any foreign government or political party” and asserted that it operates as a non-partisan voice for peace.
Founded in 2017, the People’s Forum’s $3.9 million seed funding came entirely from gifts, grants, and contributions, according to tax documents. In its most recent filings, however, the organization’s revenue sources have shifted from individual donors to an increasing amount from “program services.” The organization hosts a selection of for-pay artmaking, language, and political education courses, some costing several hundred dollars to attend, and operates its own press, 1804 Books.
In his letter, Grassley also cited a 2021 conference co-hosted by The People’s Forum and Code Pink that included events titled “‘Yellow Peril’ and Chinese Exploitation and Exclusion in the United States” and “Mapping Anti-Asian Violence, the Racial State and U.S. Imperialism” to support his call for an investigation into the groups.
De Los Santos said in his statement to Hyperallergic that Senator Grassley’s accusations fit a “classic right-wing strategy” meant to undermine dissent. The senator, however, claimed the law is “content-neutral” and doesn’t require entities to cease speech or activities.
In a statement to Hyperallergic, Senator Grassley defended his call for an investigation into the groups and called FARA a “public disclosure and transparency” statute.
“Public reporting and evidence suggests The People’s Forum and Code Pink are financially connected and influenced by Neville Roy Singham and elements of the communist Chinese government,” Grassley said.
While W.E.B. Du Bois was chairman of the Peace Information Center (PIC), a newsletter-writing organization opposing war and President Truman’s foreign policy, PIC was indicted under FARA and Du Bois was arrested. The Justice Department accused him in 1951 of acting as an agent of the Soviet Union and failing to register as a “foreign agent” with the federal government, which he denied. Du Bois’s organization had circulated the Stockholm Appeal calling for an atomic bomb ban, an initiative the US government dismissed as Soviet propaganda. The case against Du Bois, who was in his eighties, was later dropped.
Grassley’s letter asks Attorney General Bondi and FBI Director Patel to answer a set of questions about what the DOJ has done to investigate The People’s Forum and Code Pink’s “reported connections with the communist Chinese government” by today, Wednesday, April 30. As of this morning, there has been no public update on the request.
De Los Santos told Hyperallergic that The People’s Forum will continue to fulfill its mission in the face of what he called “blatant attempts at censorship.”
“The People’s Forum will remain a vital space for cultural work, political education, and grassroots organizing,” he said. “Now more than ever, we have to unite in defense of free speech and the right to organize. The attempt to silence one group endangers the rights of all.”