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The United Nations celebrates its 50th birthday with a conference June 21-24 in San Francisco, co-sponsored by citizen groups like Rainforest Action Network, Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, and Third World Institute. The alliance is odd, given such groups’ limited influence on U.N. decision-making.

That wasn’t always the case. In 1945, several “people’s” organizations–such as the NAACP and the League of Women Voters–participated in drafting the U.N. charter and mobilized their constituencies to lobby Congress to ratify it. Since then, grassroots groups have seen their role diminish considerably.

Under fire today from all quarters for its bloated bureaucracy, impotence in world crises, and lax oversight of the agencies it ostensibly manages (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc.), the U.N. seems to be seeking a rapprochement with its old allies. But the grassroots are wary, participating “less out of hopefulness [for change] than out of desperation,” said one activist. A good sign: One of the conference’s goals is to rewrite the rules of how citizen groups can get consultative status at the U.N.

Liberal lip

“Take Back the Airwaves!” (Jan./Feb.) spurred calls from readers wanting more information about alternatives to Rush Limbaugh. If you’re interested in a list of progressive radio talk shows, including several not mentioned in the article, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Airwaves, Mother Jones, 731 Market St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94103.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

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Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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