• Religious organization which has become a conduit for making tax-exempt contributions to activist groups 
• Member of the steering committee of the Marxist-Leninist front group International ANSWER
• Staunch supporter of Communist Cuba

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) is an ecumenical agency whose mission is “to help forward the struggles of oppressed people for justice and self-determination." Identifying itself as “the first national foundation controlled by people of color,” IFCO seeks to foster the development of leftist activists by means of its "support of community organizing."  A self-described “catalyst and … conscience in the movement for social justice,” IFCO laments the allegedly large presence of “the poor, the hungry, and the exploited” in the United States, and strives to ensure “that their needs are not sacrificed for the priorities of the privileged in American society.”

A 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization, IFCO has become a conduit through which donors can earmark contributions for specific activist groups; because these donations are made under the auspices of IFCO, they become tax-exempt, whereas if they were made directly to the intended beneficiaries, they would be taxed. IFCO charges a fee for this tax-expunging money-handling. Among the more than 40 groups whose activities IFCO "sponsors," and on whose behalf it accepts tax-deductible donations, are Refuse and Resist (affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party), the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (which supports the convicted cop killer and leftist icon), Not In Our Name (affiliated with the Revolutionary Communist Party), and the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, or NCPPF (founded by Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Sami Al-Arian). In fact, an IFCO seed grant subsidized the founding of NCPPF. IFCO is also a member of the steering committee of International ANSWER, which maintains close ties to the Marxist-Leninist Workers World Party. Via these and other alliances, IFCO seeks to provide aid to "the victims of U.S. foreign policy."

IFCO was incorporated in 1967 by what it calls “progressive church leaders and activists.” Its Founding Director was the Reverend Lucius Walker, Jr., who serves as its Executive Director today. The organization opened its first office at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City. In 1968 IFCO helped establish Operation Connection, which dispatched teams of activists into American cities that had been struck by a spate of race riots, “to open dialogue and work through alternatives to violent confrontation.” Working from the premise that the rioters had legitimate grievances that needed to be addressed, IFCO helped establish Native American and Hispanic American task forces as well as an International Task Force to explore support for African liberation movements. The following year IFCO held a National Black Economic Development Conference, which produced James Forman’s “Black Manifesto” calling for $500 million in reparations to the black community from white churches and synagogues.

In 1970 IFCO lobbied against American corporate and government policies in South Africa and Zimbabwe -- stressing “the interrelationship between the domestic and international oppression of blacks, and the unity in common struggle of Black Americans and the people of Africa.” In 1971 IFCO gave major financial support to the American Indian Movement and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee. Five years later IFCO helped establish the Ecumenical Minority Bail Bond Fund “to assist people of color who were subjected to political harassment” in the U.S. In 1977 IFCO actively supported affirmative action programs whose hallmark was race- and ethnicity-based preferences in business and academia.

To help activist organizations gain increased access to funding, IFCO in 1981 published its first Grantseekers' Guide in cooperation with the National Network of Grantmakers. It also implemented training and fundraising workshops for “grassroots empowerment organizations.”

In 1983, as the Reagan administration sought to check the spread of communism in Central America, IFCO lamented the “ever more tragic results” of Reagan’s policies and focused its efforts on helping the communists. For example, IFCO stated that it “viewed the Sandinista revolution and the insurrection in El Salvador as powerful models for the struggle within the U.S. against U.S. militarism, racism, and economic exploitation, and saw the importance of drawing parallels and linkages between the Nicaraguan struggle and the struggle of black and Latino communities for social justice in the U.S.” In September 1983 IFCO began conducting intensive action/education campaigns on Central America issues in selected states and Congressional districts, denouncing “the imperialistic arrogance of the U.S.” The organization also offered "Nicaragua Study Tours" to groups of U.S. citizens. 

In 1987 IFCO initiated the Freedom to Travel Project, which sought “to restore the travel rights of progressive citizens such as Margaret Randall [a communist radical author from the Sixties who admired Che Guevara and deemed America an irredeemably racist nation, whose name she spelled ‘Amerikkka’] and Phillip Agee [who had been an active and willing participant in Soviet disinformation operations].”

In 1988 IFCO launched its Pastors for Peace action/education project, which sought to use “nonviolent resistance” to “galvanize direct hands-on solidarity with the victims of U.S. foreign policy in Nicaragua -- to educate U.S. citizens at the grassroots about the brutality of U.S. policy, and to engage them in actively resisting that policy by sending aid to the Nicaraguan people.” The first Pastors for Peace Caravan to Nicaragua (in 1988) delivered 18 vehicles and 70 tons of humanitarian aid. In August 1990 IFCO hosted the visit to New York of Nicaragua’s former communist President Daniel Ortega, who spoke at a public rally at New York’s Riverside Church.

In 1991 IFCO condemned America’s involvement in the Persian Gulf War and organized weekly civil disobedience actions in front of New York’s Federal Building, “calling public attention to George [H.W.] Bush's hypocrisy in fighting a war ‘against aggression in Kuwait’ while waging a war of aggression against the children, the aged, the poor, the African-American and the Latino-American people of the U.S.”

In 1992 IFCO launched its U.S./Cuba Friendshipment campaign, more or less an annual event that IFCO characterizes as “a creative program of action/education to directly challenge” the “brutal effects” of America’s “economic blockade of Cuba.” Over the years, delegations participating in this program have transported to Cuba such items as powdered milk, medicines, Bibles, bicycles, and school supplies. Characterizing the blockade of Cuba as immoral, IFCO says: “[W]hat the U.S. government calls ‘trading with the enemy,’ we regard as taking a cup of cold water to a neighbor in need (Matthew 25:35).” One Friendshipment campaign specifically “honored Cuba's unrelenting commitment to provide free health care services for the poorest people of the world and was dedicated to the nurses and doctors of Cuba.” Another “honored Cuba's innovations in alternative energy.” Yet another “celebrated Cuba's achievements in health and healing for its people and the peoples of the world.”

In 1993 IFCO joined bishops and clergy, labor organizers, educators, and health-care professionals in a campaign led by Ramsey Clark to implore President Bill Clinton to institute “a more humane U.S. policy toward Cuba.” Two years later IFCO participated in what it termed “a coalitional effort to bring Cuban President Fidel Castro to Harlem,” where the organization said he “is loved and revered.”

In 1999 IFCO organized the first official delegation of the Congressional Black Caucus, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, to visit Cuba. In 2000 Waters returned to Cuba, this time with Rep. Barbara Lee and additional members of an IFCO delegation, to cut the ribbon at the opening of a trade fair dedicated “to Elián González and all the Cuban children who were deprived of medicines because of the U.S. economic blockade.” In a November 2000 speech in Havana, Lucius Walker proclaimed: "Long live the creative example of the Cuban Revolution! Long live the wisdom and heartfelt concern for the poor of the world by Fidel Castro!" When Castro visited New York for the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, IFCO organized a welcoming event for him at the Riverside Church. In its 15th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba in 2004, IFCO called for “REGIME CHANGE AT HOME, NOT IN CUBA!!!” (emphasis in original)

IFCO is also an active member of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five; the five individuals in question are Cuban men incarcerated in U.S. federal prison on conviction of offenses that include espionage against the United States. IFCO refers to them as “political prisoners” and “heroes who are wrongly imprisoned in U.S. jails.”

In January 2008, IFCO publicly praised the Cuban medical system, portraying it as far better than its American counterpart. According to IFCO, "Cuba's universal, free health-care system ... is community based and focuses on preventing illness before it becomes more serious and costly, in contrast to the U.S. health industry indicted for being profit-based in Michael Moore's film "Sicko."

Applications from U.S. citizens seeking to get medical training in Cuba are administered through IFCO.

IFCO Treasurer Marilyn Clement is also Executive Director of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

IFCO receives financial support from the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, the George S. and Dolores Eccles Foundation, and the Columbus Foundation and Affiliated Organizations.