Soros-backed group launches paid anti-militarist fellowship for college activists

Dissenters, an activist collective based in Chicago, is recruiting college students for a paid "Anti-Militarist Organizing Fellowship" that provides $2,500 or $3,000 for a semester or $6,000 for a full year, requiring a minimum of 15 weekly hours of organizing. The program is financed by four grants worth $305,000 received from the Foundation to Promote Open Society between 2020 and 2023, with three grants earmarked for the fellowship and one for broader national-security reform work.

These grants were routed through the Center for Third World Organizing in California and the Watershed Center in New York, both linked to George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Fellows will focus on urging campuses to sever relationships with companies tied to the military-industrial complex, preventing defense recruiters from accessing schools, and launching independent campaigns. Dissenters also offers leadership training, coaching, and community building as part of the fellowship. The group previously attracted scrutiny from the conservative Capital Research Center for a solidarity toolkit that included images of a Hamas paraglider and Palestinian activist Leila Khaled.