“This summer, IPS launched two summer internship programs designed to equip the next generation of progressive leaders with the skills needed for public scholarship. Our DC office launched the Next Leaders Program with an inaugural class of fifteen interns. Our Boston office hosted Student Debt Action, in collaboration with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. This dynamic group of high school students, college students, and recent graduates from across the country and around the world spent the summer turning ideas into action.

Prior to starting your internship this summer, what did you hear about IPS that made you excited to be coming here?

Hannah Burt (Student Debt Action, Boston): Newly graduated, the issues of higher education costs and rising students debt are ones I understand

personally. I was excited by the prospect of using the first summer after graduation not only to fight to make higher education free so that future students have an easier time than the class of 2015 had, but also to make an impact on economic inequality through an issue I care deeply about.

Lily Lou (Student Debt Action, Boston): One of my best friends who had interned for IPS the past semester told me how much she enjoyed working with the people in the Boston office and the interesting events she had worked on as part of the Jamaica Plain Forum. I was

excited to work in an organization that seemed to engage with issues on a macro and micro level.

What did you learn during your summer internship at IPS?

Christine Dickason (Next Leaders Program, DC): I learned so much about true progressive movements and their ideals. I learned more about foreign policy than I ever had before, and I became engaged in discussions that forced me to think critically about everything from the Black Lives Matter movement to

P1: Our Next Leaders: Interns from our two programs reflect on their summer experiences with IPS.

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT

I learned what being a true progressive really means, and I learned tools to shape not only my future, but my community’s future towards a more just, equitable society.

-Christine Dickason, Next Leader 2015

See “Next Leaders” on page 3

INSIDE IPS Summer 2015

IN THIS ISSUE

P2: And Still I Rise: IPS’s new Black Worker Initiative and its flagship report.

P3: Supporter Spotlight: The Next Generation Legacy Society

P4: Director’s Desk: IPS has much to celebrate this summer.

“2015 NEXT LEADERS: Back row, left to right: Eileen Huang, Kelsey Clark, Laith Shakir, Qossay Alsat-tari, Joshua Thomas-Serrano, and Christine Dickason. Front row, left to right: Joash Mencias, Alissa Weinman, Daniel Valenzuela, Gabriel Sub, Aseante Hylick, Olivia Alperstein, and Chloe Sigal. Not pictured: Angela Pradhan

Page 2

In May, IPS’s new Black Worker Initiative hosted the “State of Black Workers in America” conference to celebrate the release of its flagship report And Still I Rise. Hosted at Columbia University, this conference brought together nearly two hundred labor, civil rights, women’s and community activists to discuss the report’s findings.

And Still I Rise includes a national survey of black women in the labor movement, in addition to profiles of 27 black women leaders within the movement. Among the report’s findings were that when black women are unionized, they earn an average of more than $2 more per hour and are 20 percent more likely to have health care than black women who are not in a union. Furthermore, the report also found that when black women lead organizing efforts, they are more likely to achieve minimum wage increases and protections for workers who are not covered by current labor law.

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, the keynote speaker, discussed the intersection of labor, race, and women’s rights. She highlighted structural barriers that continue to impede black women’s success in the workplace, as well as the need for advocates to foster the growth and the leadership of more black women.

In June, the Black Worker Initiative also held a congressional briefing, “Black Working Women Matter,” that included Black women workers, labor leaders and economic justice advocates, along with Congresswoman Donna Edwards and Congresswoman Gwen Moore.

Rep. Donna Edwards’s (D-Md.) opening statement echoed the report’s findings, asserting, “It’s not an accident that in the overall private sector, black women earn only 64 cents on the dollar. This is not acceptable, and I think what this report does, it highlights black women’s experience in organized labor to tell us, to show us a pathway and a direction that we need to go for the overall success not just of black women but for all women and for the United States of America.”

Like Harris-Perry, Rep. Edwards’s remarks fully encapsulated the importance of focusing on economic justice for black women. “Correcting injustice is not a zero sum game,” said Edwards. “If you get more justice, that doesn’t mean I get less. In fact, when black women use the collective voice to win, our entire society gets a lift.”

IPS LAUNCHES NEW BLACK WORKER INITIATIVENew initiative explores the intersection of inequality, racial justice, and labor.

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) at the “Black Working Women Matter” briefing on Capitol Hill.

IPS Associate Fellow Marc Bayard with MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry, Dorian Warren, and Teresa Younger

Page 3

What drew you to IPS originally?In college in the 1970s, I read the classic book by IPS co-founder Richard J. Barnet on the unaccountable power of global corporations, which was called Global Reach. That led me to work at the United Nations on the impact of corporations on poor countries and to hatch a dream of coming to IPS to write a sequel on corporate power with Dick. There was an opening to run IPS’s global economy project in 1983 and I grabbed it, wrote the sequel with

Dick, and never looked back.

Why did you stay in the IPS community after all these years?I quickly became enamored with the IPS practice of public scholarship, doing research and writing linked with the dynamic social movements that were fighting corporate globalization and building alternatives to it. IPS educated me, and I thrived.

Why did you decide to support IPS with a legacy gift?IPS has been serving dynamic social movements for over 50 years and has now made a deep commitment to mentoring the next generation of public scholars. The place is teeming with terrific young people who are becoming equipped to make a difference. I

GIVE TO IPS

Supporter Spotlight: IPS Director John Cavanagh discusses why he put IPS in his will

Next Leaders>> Continued from Page 1

Israel/Palestine conflicts. I learned what being a true progressive really means, and I learned tools to shape not only my future, but my community’s future towards a more just, equitable society.

Anne Conron (Student Debt Action, Boston): This summer has exposed to me the intricacies of building a coalition between groups that possess the same goal, but also possess different strengths. I also learned how to best articulate the values I have always held dear, but not always known how to best express.

Daniel Valenzuela (Next Leaders Program, DC): I learned a lot about the glacial pace at which change happens. With so many things entrenched in society, it takes a lot of hard work and devotions to make change in the world.

How did your summer at IPS shape your future, or influence your future goals/plans?

Olivia Alperstein (Next Leaders Program, DC): My summer at IPS was critical in terms of my career, as I am now part of IPS staff. I have a much better sense of how I would like to define myself as a job seeker and I am better able to articulate the ways in which I want to use my

skills to achieve social change… After the internship, I was offered the chance to continue to work with my supervisor as a member of the staff, and of course I jumped at the opportunity. I know that I would never have had that opportunity without this internship, and I know that this internship will continue to define my work experiences going forward.

2015 Student Action Fellows: Back row, left to right: Hanna Blunden, Lily Luo, Erika Civitarese, Melanie Kirsh, Vanessa Yan, Anne Conron. Front row, left to right: Hannah Burt, Jeff Butke, Ben St. Clair, Will Epiter-Smith. Not pictured: Gloria McGillen

Help us turn ideas into action for our future by joining The Next Generation Legacy Society. By remembering IPS in your will or living trust or naming IPS as a beneficiary of a retirement account or life insurance policy, you can help us invest in the next generation of progressive leaders.

For more information,visit IPS-DC.ORG/DONATE

don’t know of a better place to leave funds than a place that has nurtured me and hundreds of others, and that is playing such a dynamic role in social change.

Page 4

NEW BOOK: “Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror”

Dear Friends,

We’ve had a great summer here at IPS.

As you’ve read, we launched a new Black Worker Initiative in May, and we welcomed two groups of talented young progressives for our Next Leaders Program in our DC office and for the Student Debt Action program in our Boston office.

Last July, IPSers were on hand to celebrate the re-opening of the Cuban embassy in Washington, DC – a huge step in the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations. We took this opportunity to reflect on the life of IPS fellow Saul Landau, who spent decades of creative filmmaking, writing, convening, and behind-the-scenes diplomacy on Cuba before he passed away in 2013.

In August, we celebrated, along with our allies, a long overdue victory: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted to implement a 2010 Dodd-Frank Act mandate that requires America’s publicly traded corporations to annually report the ratio between their chief executive and median worker compensation. IPS has been calling for this disclosure for many years, and see this vote as an important step to addressing income inequality in the United States.

As summer begins to wind down, we’re looking toward the fall season, which brings our annual Letelier-Moffitt (LM) Human Rights Awards. This year, we’ll be honoring two human rights champions who have made a significant impact in the legal field. You can learn more about them or register for the event at IPS-DC.ORG/LM2015. We hope to see you at the LM Awards on October 6, or at the annual Sheridan Circle memorial service for Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt on September 13.

Sincerely,John Cavanagh

DIRECTOR’S DESK

Earlier this summer, Phyllis Bennis, IPS’s expert on Middle East policy released a new book, “Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror.” Like the earlier primers on Palestine and Afghanistan, the new book is written in a Frequently Asked Questions format and address-es topics like “What does ISIS believe?”, “Don’t we need military force when ISIS is so violent?”, “What should the U.S. policy be?”, “What should we be doing to get us there?”, and more. The book launch was held at Busboys and Poets and included a discussion with Busboys’ founder and IPS board member Andy Shallal.