• Assets: $401,947 (2005)
• Grants Received: $889,793 (2005)
• Grants Awarded: $803,561 (2005)

Named after socialist, union activist, and war resister Abraham Johannes Muste (1885-1967), the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute was founded in 1974 by a group of pacifists who proclaimed a deep "commitment to nonviolent radical change by providing the movement for peace and justice with practical, concrete support." Working out of its New York City headquarters, a building it dubs the "Peace Pentagon," the Institute publishes books and pamphlets against war and in favor of nonviolence, and provides grants and sponsorships to leftist grassroots groups throughout the U.S. and around the world.

In its early years, the Muste Institute was run entirely by volunteers who worked at a borrowed desk in the New York City office of the War Resisters League (WRL). In 1978 the Institute purchased, from WRL, a three-story office building (the aforementioned “Peace Pentagon”) in downtown Manhattan to serve as a permanent base of operations for itself and other local activist groups. Today the Institute rents out office space in this building to a number of organizations that share its leftist and anti-American perspectives. The Institute subsidizes the office rents for these tenants, using income from several commercial storefront rentals to offset the cost of the subsidies. This arrangement enables the Institute to provide low-cost office space for its tenant groups, among which are the following:

• Deep Dish TV: Created in 1986 by leftist activist Dee Dee Halleck, this satellite channel airs radical videos on the FSTV satellite channel, including Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!
  
  
• New York Transfer: A Muste Building tenant since 1995, this group works to disseminate radical views via the Internet.
  
  
• Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York: This pro-Sandinista communist organization, created with the help of Cuban Intelligence, condemns U.S. intervention in Latin America and encourages grassroots resistance through its Weekly News Update.
  
  
• Paper Tiger TV: Founded in 1981, this organization of radical video makers, distributors and activists claims to have "challenged and exposed the corporate domination of mainstream media, using the non-commercial, uncensored channels to counterbalance [the] negative influence of mass media." Paper Tiger TV created Deep Dish TV.
  
  
• Socialist Party USA: This organization seeks to establish a socialist order in the United States.
  
  
• War Resisters League: In the Cold War against the Soviet empire, this organization led efforts to dismantle America's nuclear capabilities. WRL was perhaps the first major anti-war organization to blame America for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On that very day, WRL released a statement saying, "The policies of militarism pursued by the United States have resulted in millions of deaths. . . . We condemn without reservations attacks such as those which occurred today, which strike at thousands of civilians -- may these profound tragedies remind us of the impact U.S. policies have had on other civilians in other lands."
  
  
• Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Metro NY Chapter): Early in its history, the League made clear its socialist position regarding private property, urging its members to embrace "the gradual abolition of property privileges (for instance, means of taxation, death duties, and land reform laws)."
  
  
• Not In Our Name (NION): This self-described "peace movement" is a Communist front group initiated by the longtime Maoist activist C. Clark Kissinger - a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), a Maoist group calling for the overthrow of the U.S. government and its replacement with a communist dictatorship.
  
  
• Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO): A member of the steering committee of International ANSWER (which is a front group for the communist Workers World Party), IFCO promotes a "people-to-people foreign policy" to provide aid to "the victims of US foreign policy."
  
  
• Socialist Party of New York City: This organization declares that it is "committed to the transformation of capitalism through the creation of democratic socialist society."

• end war and expose the military-industrial complex
• oppose nuclear power and halt environmental racism
• stop the death penalty and curb the prison industry
• defend labor rights and build economic justice
• fight for racial and sexual equality, and for immigrant rights
• promote the use of nonviolent action

A member organization of the Peace and Security Funders Group, the A.J. Muste Institute commonly uses its tax-exempt status to sponsor likeminded organizations that are not tax-exempt, thereby enabling the latter to receive tax-deductible contributions from the public. Among the organizations sponsored (and otherwise financially supported) by the Institute are: the Center for Environmental Democracy; the Climate Crisis Coalition; Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants; the Global Exchange; the Holy Land Trust; the Coalition for the Human Rights of Immigrants; the International Solidarity Movement; International Nonviolent Initiatives; the International Women's Partnership for Peace and Justice; the Denver Justice and Peace Committee Education Fund; the International Peace Bureau; Kairos/Plowshares; the International Peace Bureau; the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions; Justice for Detainees; the Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York; United for Peace and Justice; War Resisters' International; the War Resisters League; the National Lawyers Guild; the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Jews for Racial and Economic Justice; and Justice for Detainees.

Not only does the A.J. Muste Institute make grants to organizations whose objectives it supports, but it also occasionally receives grants from likeminded foundations. In 2002, for example, the Institute received a $10,000 grant from the Ben & Jerry's Foundation, and the following year it received a $25,000 grant from the Samuel Rubin Foundation.