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George Soros’ Social Agenda for America

Drug Legalization, Euthanasia, Immigrant Entitlements and Feminism

Neil Hrab

Summary: The February issue of Founda-


tion Watch examined the philanthropy of
the billionaire financier George Soros. It
found that Soros-funded groups supported
increased government spending and tax
increases, and opposed the death penalty
and President Bush’s judicial nominees.
In this article author Neil Hrab looks at
Soros grants in four other policy areas:
drug legalization, euthanasia, immigrant
entitlements, and feminist organizing.

I n 1956 George Soros (born 1930) moved


from Great Britain, where he was educated,
to the United States, where he made his
fortune in the business of managing
money, his own and other people’s. The
Hungarian-born Soros became a billion-
aire. Then about two decades ago he be-
George Soros: Promoter of radical social change.
gan to give away some of that fortune
while continuing to work at making even DRUG LEGALIZATION become the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which
more money. George Soros has waged a long per- continues their work. New York City-based
sonal war against America’s “war on DPA maintains seven offices across the
Soros is the author of a number of drugs.” Until 2000, he relied primarily on country, including branches in Washing-
books, which attempt to explain his pecu- two nonprofit groups to carry on the ton, D.C. and in the states of New Jersey,
liar and rather contradictory vision of how battle. One was the Lindesmith Center, a California and New Mexico.
global society should evolve. But there is pro-marijuana legalization think-tank set
little confusion in his philanthropic giv- up in 1994 with a pledge of $4 million (over
ing, which is coordinated by the Open 5 years) from Soros. The Center frequently
April 2003
Society Institute (OSI), his grant-making held pro-legalization conferences, issued CONTENTS
foundation based in New York City. It’s publications and in general provided a
hard to understand Soros’ ideas by read- platform for legalization’s proponents. The George Soros’ Social Agenda
ing his books. It’s much easier to under- Center is named after Alfred Lindesmith, a for America
page 1
stand them by examining his grantmaking. deceased Indiana University sociologist
who favored more relaxed drug laws. The Open Society Institute
What follows is a review of recent other nonprofit was the Drug Policy Foun- Board of Trustees
Soros grants in four policy areas: drug dation, a membership organization estab- page 5
legalization, euthanasia, immigrant entitle- lished in 1987, which also provided fund- Philanthropy Notes
ments, and feminist pro-abortion organiz- ing for groups opposing the drug war. page 6
ing. However, three years ago, the two merged to
Foundation Watch

DPA executive director Ethan It’s no exaggeration to say that with- Nadelmann told his audience: “When
Nadelmann argues, “People shouldn’t be out Soros there would be no serious lobby Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no,’ she
punished for what they put in their bodies, against the drug war. He makes possible wasn’t altogether wrong. But it’s the George
absent harm to others.” To achieve that OSI’s grantmaking and DPF’s policy lead- Washington-chopping-down-the cherry
end, DPA works to loosen narcotics laws. ership. tree version of drug education. It’s cute,
In early 2002, for example, the New Mexico it’s simple, but it doesn’t work for teenag-
Drug Policy Project, a DPA branch, con- It’s not easy to determine how much ers.”
tinually aired pro-legalization ads on state Soros currently gives to DPA through the
TV stations for five weeks at a cost of Open Society Institute because of the time While OSI opposes drug policies that
$90,000. Broadcast as often as ten times a lag in IRS disclosure of nonprofit tax forms. “rely too heavily on police and prisons,” it
day, the ads alleged that the “war on However, in 2000 the OSI gave about $3.5 favors what it terms “harm reduction” ser-
drugs” cost New Mexicans more than $40 million to DPA - about the same total amount vices to drug users. These are programs
million each year. given to its predecessors in 1998. In 2000, that claim to show concern for drug users’
DPF made more than 100 grants ($1.7 mil- health and human rights. OSI’s Interna-
Other policies advocated by DPA in- lion) to groups demanding that Washing- tional Harm Reduction Development
clude: ton relax its anti-narcotics laws. For ex- (IHRD) program provides extensive fund-
ample, about $120,000 went to organiza- ing to foreign government agencies and
• Making marijuana legally avail- tions agitating for reduced penalties nongovernmental organizations (NGOs),
able for medical purposes; against marijuana users such as the Wash- especially in Eastern Europe and the former
ington, D.C.-based National Organization Soviet Union. Working closely with DPA,
• Repealing mandatory minimum for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the it gives grants for advocacy training, legal
sentences for non-violent drug offenses. Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii and assistance and coalition-building.
DrugSense of Irvine, California. And re-
• Ending imprisonment for simple searchers at Yale University received The IHRD website says it is not cur-
drug possession, except where the distri- $25,000 to persuade Connecticut health rently accepting unsolicited grants for “ser-
bution of drugs to children is involved; authorities that needle exchange programs vice delivery projects” such as needle ex-
were good public policy. changes or methadone. However, IHRD’s
• Redirecting most government list of current grants programs abroad in-
drug control money from criminal justice In 2000, the DPF also donated $60,000 cludes a sub-category for “sex workers,”
to public health and education. in total to three left-wing groups opposed the term favored by nonprofits that differ-
to U.S. government efforts to work with entiate forced from consensual prostitu-
South American governments on common tion (See “Vital Voices Global Partnership,”
anti-narcotic policies: the Washington Foundation Watch, March 2003).
Editor: John Carlisle
Office on Latin America, the Andean In-
Publisher: Terrence Scanlon formation Network and Witness for Peace. DPA is only one U.S. drug legalization
group receiving Soros’ support. Last year,
Foundation Watch Many pro-legalization groups enthu- according to a November 2002 article in
is published by Capital Research siastically endorse using drugs and are USA Today, Soros personally gave
Center, a non-partisan education and
research organization, classified by ignored by policymakers and the press or $400,000 to Nevadans for Responsible Law
the IRS as a 501(c)(3) public charity. treated as fringe organizations. But that’s Enforcement, a pro-marijuana-legalization
hardly true for DPA, whose researchers group, to advocate for the liberalization of
Address: have placed articles in prestige journals Arizona’s drug laws. It gave $65,000 in
1513 16th Street, N.W. such as Foreign Affairs and Science. The 2000 to the Marijuana Policy Project Foun-
Washington, DC 20036-1480
conservative National Review published dation, a Washington, D.C.-based group,
Phone: (202) 483-6900 an article by Ethann Nadelmann in 1995 and $50,000 to the Drug Policy Forum of
Long-Distance: (800) 459-3950 about Switzerland’s liberal attitude to- Texas. In 1998, it provided $125,000 to the
wards heroin addicts. And important sci- Common Sense for Drug Policy Founda-
E-mail Address: entific periodicals like the Journal of the tion, a backer of the so-called “right” to
jcarlisle@capitalresearch.org
American Medical Association and Brit- “medical marijuana.” In 1996, Soros was
Web Site: ish Medical Journal review books pub- reported to have donated about $500,000
http://www.capitalresearch.org lished by DPA. to marijuana legalization initiatives in Ari-
zona and California, which both failed. That
Foundation Watch welcomes letters And DPA gets good media coverage, year OSI also approved $2.25 million for
to the editor.
in part because executive director Drug Strategies, a D.C.-based group ques-
Reprints are available for $2.50 Nadelmann always has great soundbites tioning the city’s drug control regime.
prepaid to Capital Research Center. for reporters. At a 1999 conference

2 April 2003
Foundation Watch

The ACLU has been a particular ben- attitudes toward death by changing public In 2001, PDIA made grants totaling
eficiary of OSI grants. In 2000, it received attitudes about physician-assisted sui- $5,105,000 to groups concerned with what’s
$150,000 for its drug policy litigation cide. His financial backing has helped drug called “end of life” assistance for ailing
project and $23,000 to support a speaker’s legalization proponents gain a new respect- people, such as palliative care for the ter-
series in Massachusetts to promote “alter- ability, and he aims to do the same for minally ill elderly. Other programs such as
natives to incarceration for drug offend- supporters of euthanasia. PDIA’s large the PDIA “Social Work Leadership Devel-
ers.” The ACLU of Washington (state) annual budget—$5 million—has helped it opment Awards” aim to increase the pres-
Foundation got $75,000. In 1997-1998, OSI achieve prominence. PDIA director tige of social workers committed to “end of
gave the national ACLU Foundation $1.2 Kathleen M. Foley has testified before life care” and help make them “mentors”
million, partially to fund anti-drug war liti- Congress on physician-assisted suicide, and “role models” for a new generation of
gation. and PDIA-linked physician Susan Block, social workers.
MD, a psychiatrist with the Dana Farber
EUTHANASIA Cancer Institute in Boston, last year ar- IMMIGRANT ENTITLEMENTS
Many of Soros’ policy interests ap- gued in the pages of the New England The Emma Lazarus Fund of the Open
pear quixotic. Euthanasia, like drug use, Journal of Medicine that “physician-as- Society Institute was established with a
has little public support, and Americans sisted death may be an acceptable option $50 million endowment in 1996. Named
look at public policy proposals to make it of last resort.” after the author of the poem whose verses
lawful with reactions ranging from skepti- adorn the Statue of Liberty, it committed
cism to revulsion. Soros, however, ap- PDIA funds individual scholars in the $43 million the following year to organiza-
proaches the popular reaction as an op- U.S., Britain and Canada. Last year, for tions committed to fighting “the unfair
portunity for public education. His example, a PDIA-funded University of New treatment of and discrimination against
grantmaking in this area is a form of na- Mexico scholar, Dr. Judith Kitzes, orga- immigrants who are lawfully present in the
tional tutoring that he no doubt expects nized a conference in Albuquerque on United States.” The Fund was a direct
will eventually have a long-term impact— palliative care. A past recipient of PDIA response to the 1996 welfare reform law,
reaching even to rulings of the U.S. Su- funds, Dr. Robert Twyncross of Oxford approved by President Clinton, which lim-
preme Court. University, attended Kitzes’ conference ited immigrants’ access to welfare entitle-
where he lectured participants about ments. Its mission was to counter the “in-
In a November 1994 lecture at Colum- America’s medical system. Twyncross la- tensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric” that
bia Presbyterian Medical Center in New mented that U.S. medicine was “hell-bent welfare reform purportedly encouraged and
York City Soros revealed one motive for on defying death”—as if that were wrong— to help integrate newcomers into the Ameri-
his interest: “Voters in Oregon just ap- and referred favorably to Britain’s social- can mainstream.
proved a law that makes it the first state to ist health system.
lift the prohibition against physician-as- During its three years of existence, the
sisted suicide. As the son of a mother who In 2000, OSI also made grants to the Lazarus fund contributed generously to
was a member of the Hemlock Society ... I Death with Dignity National Center so-called “public interest” legal associa-
cannot but approve.” Founded in 1980, the ($100,000) and the Oregon Death with Dig- tions like the Alliance For Justice ($80,000
Hemlock Society is a nonprofit group that nity Legal Defense and Education Center over two years), a liberal coalition of largely
advocates the right of the terminally-ill to ($75,000). National Death with Dignity Washington, D.C. groups that, along with
commit suicide and calls for passage of describes itself as “the premier educa- People for the American Way, has spear-
laws permitting physician-assisted suicide. tional organization dedicated to discuss- headed campaigns to appoint liberal activ-
ing physician aid in dying openly, seri- ist judges to the federal courts and stop
That year Soros began giving money ously, and with intellectual rigor.” The the confirmation of conservative ones. The
to start the Project on Death in America Oregon group works to make the state the Fund also gave $600,000 to support the
(PDIA), whose purpose is “to understand first to allow “terminally ill individuals ACLU’s Immigrant’s Rights Project, which
and transform the culture and experience meeting stringent safeguards to hasten worked to challenge the constitutionality
of dying and bereavement through fund- their own deaths.” Founded in 1993, it of national, state and local efforts to curb
ing initiatives in research, scholarship, the would make it legal for ailing people to immigrants’ entitlement to welfare ben-
humanities, and the arts, and to foster obtain lethal drug prescriptions. Another efits.
innovations in the provision of care, pub- Oregon-based group, the Compassion in
lic education, professional education, and Dying Federation of America (CDFA), has In 1998, the Fund announced it would
public policy.” OSI remains a strong sup- received OSI funding—$150,000 in 1998 give $75,000 to the leftist National Law-
porter of PDIA; in 2000 the foundation and $125,000 in 1999. CDFA supports “aid- yers Guild, whose core membership is a
contributed a three-year $15 million grant in-dying for terminally ill, mentally compe- network of some 4,000 radical legal practi-
to sustain its mission. tent adults” and claims “assurance of a tioners. It also promised $140,000 to the
humane death enhances the celebration of California Rural Legal Assistance Foun-
Soros’ goal is to transform American life.” dation (CRLAF), which was promoting the

April 2003 3
Foundation Watch

new cause of “environmental justice.” En- encouraging them to undertake common ship for Women and Families received
vironmental justice is the name for a strat- projects. This lifts the burden from indi- $1.1 million (1998-2003). It currently is fight-
egy of political organizing that claims com- vidual grantmakers, who fear big solo grant ing President Bush’s effort to prevent
munities are targeted for toxic waste dumps commitments to nonprofit projects, and United Nations health workers from using
and polluting industries because they are from nonprofits, who fear undertaking U.S. aid money for overseas abortions
minority and poor. multiple foundation-sponsored projects in The National Women’s Law Center, a
order to maintain a constant level of fund- public interest law group that files law-
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil ing. Soros continues to support Tides, a suits on a variety of feminist issues, took
Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area is controversial foundation that often acts in $850,000 in 1998 for a five-year program
another California legal group receiving as both grantmaker and grantee (See “Tides on “reproductive health and choice.”
Fund support ($150,000). Founded in 1968 Foundation’s Activist Network Exerts ‘Un-
to advance “the rights of color, poor people, due Influence’,” Foundation Watch, April The Ms Foundation for Women was
and immigrants and refugees,” it has 2000). In 2000, OSI made grants of close to awarded $600,000 in 1998 for its Reproduc-
helped defend race-based programs and $2 million to support Tides’ work on immi- tive Rights Coalition Fund. The Feminist
most recently organized opposition to gration and drug policy as well as to curb Majority Foundation got $675,000, the
Ward Connerly’s 2002 campaign to stop gun ownership. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy -
the state of California from collecting data $1.5 million, and the Institute for Women’s
on its citizens’ racial and ethnic identity. A PRO-ABORTION AGENDA Policy Research - $350,000. Planned Par-
related group, the Lawyers’ Committee for George Soros is an important funder of enthood was awarded $1 million towards
Civil Rights Under Law of Texas, was feminist groups supporting the right to its Emergency Contraception Project, $1
awarded $175,000 for 1997-1998, and the abortion. A review of OSI’s website shows million for a Mifepristone Affiliate-Readi-
National Consumer Law Center, another that from 1998 through 2003, it made over ness Project, and $200,000 to coordinate
liberal legal advocate received $50,000 in 150 grants to pro-abortion programs, pour- coalition planning with other feminist
1997. ing $31 million into scores of nonprofit groups.
organizations. (For a survey of feminist
In 1997, OSI approved an eye-pop- organizations, see Kimberly Schuld, CRC OSI also supports international NGO
ping $1,000,000 grant to the National Coun- Guide to Feminist Organizations, 2002.) programs. It has given five-figure grants
cil of La Raza to study the negative effect to NGOs that monitor the implementation
of welfare reform on Latino immigrants. La Joan Dunlop, an OSI board member, of the population recommendations set
Raza encourages the creation of a Chicano heads a group called A Women’s Lens on forth at the U.N.’s Beijing and Cairo con-
political consciousness even though His- Global Issues, which mobilizes American ferences. Other grants go to help NGOs
panic-Americans hail from many different women activists to work on international participate in future international confer-
countries and cultures; its programs and development issues. Previously she was ences. One $25,000 grant went to Action
studies encourage federal and state gov- president of the International Women’s Canada for Population and Development
ernments to deal with Hispanics as a dis- Health Coalition, which she started in 1984. so that members of its Youth Coalition
tinct cultural bloc. OSI also gave La Raza IWHC prospered under her leadership, could attend a U.N. General Assembly
$300,000 in 2000. Another advocacy group, obtaining funds from the MacArthur and meeting on implementing the recommen-
the Mexican American Legal Defence and Ford foundations and a four-year grant of dations of the Beijing conference.
Education Fund (MALDEF), received $1,975,000 from the OSI President’s Office.
$75,000 from OSI in 1999. Recently, In his book Open Society: Reforming
MALDEF opposed President Bush’s nomi- OSI’s Program on Reproductive Global Capitalism (2000), George Soros
nation of Miguel Estrada to serve on a Health and Rights pledged $600,000 to the writes that he is “rather leery of self-ap-
federal appeals court, while La Raza took D.C.-based National Abortion Federation pointed, self-righteous” international
no position. Other Hispanic groups, such (NAF), the self-described “professional NGOs. He even warns that giving them more
as the League of United Latin American association of abortion providers in the authority may endanger the world’s political
Citizens (LULAC), endorsed Estrada. They United States and Canada.” 1998-2002 stability. How odd then that Soros uses his
tend to be member-supported rather than grants to NAF were used to “alleviate the grantmaking to strengthen NGOs that do
dependent on foundation grants. shortage of abortion providers,” support not hesitate or equivocate in defining their
bilingual public education campaigns on vision for society. They want dramatic
In 1999, the Fund gave $200,000 to the abortion, and more fully integrate abortion global change and George Soros’ philan-
San Francisco-based Tides Foundation to services into medical education. OSI also thropy is helping them achieve it.
set up an Immigration Funders’ Collabora- gave $700,000 to the National Abortion
tive. Perhaps this was a fitting end for the and Reproductive Rights Action League Neil Hrab, a freelance writer, works
Emma Lazarus Fund. The idea behind a (now called NARAL Pro-Choice America) for the National Post in Toronto, Canada.
“funders’ collaborative” is to promote for its five-year “Choice for America” tele-
networking by foundation grantmakers, vision ad campaign. The National Partner-

4 April 2003
Foundation Watch

Open Society Institute Board of Trustees


George Soros is board chair of the Open Society Institute. Here are the other members of the OSI board of trustees.

Morton I. Abramowitz -- The former president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace also was on the
editorial board of the journal Foreign Policy, served as U.S. ambassador to Thailand and Turkey, and was assistant
secretary of state for intelligence and research during the Reagan Administration. The future of the former Yugoslavia is a
long-standing concern for Soros, so it is interesting that Abramowitz supports a continuing U.S. engagement in Bosnia
under U.N. auspices.

Leon Botstein -- The president of Bard College in New York is known for making provocative public statements. He has
criticized Republican attempts to eliminate inheritance taxes—an incentive for college bequests. Like fellow trustee Lani
Guinier, he supports affirmative action for minorities.

Geoffrey Canada -- A Harlem children’s rights activist, he heads the Rheedlen Centers for Children and Families, a New
York education group that received a $1.25 million grant from OSI in 1997. Canada became an OSI trustee in late 2002.

Joan Dunlop -- An abortion rights activist, she is heading a group called A Women’s Lens on Global Issues. It mobilizes
American women activists to work on international development issues. Previously she was president of the International
Women’s Health Coalition, which she started in 1984. IWHC prospered under her leadership, obtaining funds from the
MacArthur and Ford foundations.

Lani Guinier -- She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be assistant attorney general for civil rights until word
spread that Guinier believed, in the words of Chester Finn, “only blacks can represent other blacks ‘authentically.’” A
Harvard professor of law, Guinier would dramatically increase racial and gender preference programs.

Bill Moyers -- Liberalism’s Mr. Big, Moyers’ 2000 PBS documentary “On Our Own Terms: Dying in the United States”
presented a sanitized version of the issue of physician-assisted suicide. It has become a public relations bonanza for
groups funded through OSI’s Project on Dying in America. One group called Aging With Dignity reported a 300 percent
increase in downloads from its website when it was mentioned on the program.

Aryeh Neier -- The President and CEO of the Open Society Institute has had a four-decade-long association with liberal
causes. Neier has worked for such groups as Human Rights Watch and the ACLU. In the 1980s, he was a vocal critic of
President Ronald Reagan’s Latin American policy and U.N. ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick. As OSI chief, Neier uses his
legal expertise to assist groups critical of the U.S. criminal justice system.

David J. Rothman -- A professor of history at Columbia University, Rothman writes on medical ethics issues. In a 1996
Nation article, he minimized physician-assisted suicide as “not likely to affect a sizable proportion of the population, not
even of dying patients.”

Thomas M. Scanlon, Jr. -- The Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy and Civil Polity at Harvard writes
widely on law, personal responsibility and human rights.

John G. Simon -- A Yale law school professor and founding director of the Yale Program on Non-Profit Organizations,
Simon is a respected authority on the nonprofit sector. He is also a board member with the National Center on Philan-
thropy and the Law at New York University, which has ties to the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Herbert Sturz -- A New York City urban issues activist, Sturz was a member of the New York Times’ editorial board and
chairman of the city’s planning commission during the Koch administration. He administers an OSI program directed
towards urban youth.
April 2003 5
Foundation Watch

PhilanthropyNotes
In a February 27 speech at Carnegie Mellon University, George Soros accused the White House of
shirking its responsibility as the world’s only superpower. Soros said the Administration has a “vis-
ceral aversion to international cooperation” as demonstrated by its willingness to ignore world opin-
ion on Iraq. “President Bush is pushing the wrong buttons when he says, ‘Those who are not with us,
are against us,’” said Soros. “This is an imperialist vision in which the U.S. leads and the rest of the
world follows.” Soros criticized Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Attorney General John
Ashcroft as having “an exaggerated view of their own righteousness.”

On February 5, the Senate Finance Committee tacked on to the Administration-backed Faith-Based


Initiative a major tax benefit for environmental organizations. The measure provides a 25
percent tax cut on capital gains for the sale of land – but only if land is sold to an environmental
group or government agency. The American Land Rights Network warns that this provision offers
immense benefits to the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts which already make large sums
buying up private lands and selling them to the government.

“The 2002 Slate 60,” the annual list of charitable gifts and pledges from the nation’s top philanthro-
pists, reports that giving last year totaled $4.6 billion, less than half of 2001’s $12.7 billion. The
collapse of the technology sector hit charitable giving hard as technology entrepreneurs cut back on
their giving. The top two donors in 2002 are the recently-deceased Walter Annenberg, who donated
$1 billion in art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Ruth Lilly, late heiress to the Eli Lilly pharma-
ceutical fortune, who left $520 million to arts organizations, including $100 million to tiny Poetry
magazine. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was the tech sector’s top donor (number fourteen),
giving $74 million to his foundations.

On February 18, Andrew “Tiny” Rader, founding chairman of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Founda-
tion, passed away in San Diego at the age of 88. Rader led the Milwaukee-based institution for 15
years from its inception in 1985 to 2000. Bradley president Michael Grebe said, “The one man to
whom the Bradley Foundation is most indebted…for its formation, for its clear thinking, for its
strength of purpose, and for its boldness…is a giant called ‘Tiny.’” Rader, who served as president
of Allen-Bradley Company in Milwaukee from 1970 to 1985, sold the company to Rockwell Interna-
tional. The sale funded the Bradley Foundation, yielding hundreds of millions of dollars for local
charities and national nonprofits focused on conservative approaches to public policy.

The watchdog group Judicial Watch is urging the Bush Administration to take tougher action
against nonprofit groups that support and fund radical Islamic terrorist organizations, including
Hamas. At a March 5 press conference, President Larry Klayman reports that after September 11
Judicial Watch had asked the Administration to take action against the Holy Land Foundation, the
Islamic Association for Palestine and other nonprofits. Both groups had connections to the Dal-
las/Forth Worth metropolitan area. Two months later, the Administration took action against some,
but not all, of the groups targeted by Judicial Watch. The press conference, held in a Dallas hotel,
discussed the continued terrorist activity in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

6 April 2003
Foundation Watch

April 2003 7
Foundation Watch
Founda

8 April 2003

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