Spring 2025 Fund Appeal

April 24, 2025

Dear SCW friends, supporters and collaborators,

Even though we saw this chaos and repression coming, it’s still very hard not to be overwhelmed (at least sometimes). There is a great deal to process, and respond to. We worked hard to prevent Donald Trump from returning to power, knowing that the consequences would be dire, but here we are. Fortunately, Syracuse Cultural Workers has been standing up for peace and justice for over four decades, so we’ve faced bad times before. 

In the past few months, we’ve dug in, seeking to inspire and embolden people across the country to stand up, speak out and take action. While things can look very dark, we’re heartened by the level of organizing and resistance underway. We’ve already produced a number of powerful new products (see the back) which meet the political moment and resonate with people, and we’re working on more.  We’ve also seen a healthy uptick in sales, including many new customers.

Given that growth, and our hope to play an even more meaningful role in the movements to protect our neighbors and democracy, we’re asking for your support to help us achieve two key goals.

*   Hire a new Assistant Director for Syracuse Cultural Workers. We need creative new energy to provide leadership and help expand on our growth, 

*   Raise wages for our entire staff 

Longtime SCW Director Dik Cool stepped away from day-to-day management of the business about three years ago, and, then sadly, passed away in November 2023. The political leadership and management of the business has fallen largely on my shoulders, and there’s much to be done.  Now that we’re in a time of growth, our work would greatly benefit from a talented Assistant Director to share those critical tasks.

In order to survive the 2008 Financial Crisis, SCW cut back on wages and benefits. Since that time, no one on our staff has been paid a living wage. We justified it because it was either that or going out of business. With our very flat wage scale, none of us currently earns such a wage. That contradiction is no longer acceptable to us, so we’re embarking on an ambitious campaign to continue increasing sales so we can raise all our staff to a living wage within the next 18 months.

The changes we’ve made over the past year and half – to operate more efficiently, particularly with our print marketing, and increase investment in digital marketing – have put us in a much more stable position to move forward.

Everything feels uncertain right now, except the need for us to engage in long-term organizing to defend the values for which we have fought for many decades.

We appreciate your support for Syracuse Cultural Workers, whether you’ve been buying Peace Calendars from us for over 40 years or have more recently discovered us. 

We also hope you’ll see the importance of meeting our goals of expanding our staff and compensating people more fairly than we’ve been able to do in the past.

Any donation you’re able to make – be it a large contribution or something smaller  – 
is deeply appreciated.

In Solidarity,

Andy Mager
Coordinator and Social Movements Liaison

PS:  You can also support SCW by following us on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Pinterest, and sharie our posts and emails with your friends and networks.