Ruckus Updates

Help get the tools for change into the hands of the 99%

Dear Ruckus Community,

2011 has been filled with people-powered action! With popular movements sweeping the U.S. and the world, Ruckus got to spend 2011 doing what it does best: helping communities build power through training, skills-building, and creative, strategic action.

We couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend our 15th anniversary, than by training thousands who are standing up to declare themselves part of the 99% and take action against the 1%’s system based on inequality and greed at the expense of the 99% (which includes Mother Earth).

With support from individuals like you, we have trained scores of activists since 1996! And with your support again this December, we can continue building the skills and capacity of the 99% that is growing every day!

Please click here to donate now: https://ruckus.org/donate

Ruckus has been training the 99% for 15 years now, and we continue to day in and day out – by supporting new activists in occupations across the country, and deepening our steadfast support for communities who are hit first and worst by systems of inequality and oppression, who have been fighting for the rights of the 99% for years.

Can you DONATE TODAY to help us continue building the skills and strategy of our growing movements in 2012?

History has taught us that social change comes through brave acts of community resistance – but most history lessons leave out the fact that successful resistance movements require intensive training and strategic preparation. It is this key piece of the puzzle that only Ruckus brings to the table – we dedicate ourselves completely to sharing skills and building leadership so that our movements for justice are equipped with the tools needed to get the job done.

Our work is only possible through the generous support of our community. Please donate now to help us get the tools needed to create lasting change into the hands of as much of the 99% as possible.

Read below for highlights from some of the specific fights we’ve been supporting, from #Occupy to the Tar Sands, and Migrant Rights.

Thank you for helping us build the direct action arm of our movements for justice! We can’t do it without you!

Megan & Sharon at Ruckus Party
With gratitude & warm wishes for your holiday season,

Megan Swoboda & Sharon Lungo
Co-Directors

P.S.  Please help build the strategy, skills, and leadership of the 99%, with a gift to The Ruckus Society this December!


— #OCCUPY FEVER!

Occupy the Banks banner at Chase Bank, Oakland, CA - Nov 2, 2011

Ruckus climbers scaled street lamps to hang this “Occupy the Banks” banner during the November 2nd Oakland General Strike called for by Occupy Oakland. Photo Credit: Anita Sarkeesian

"The last few months here at Occupy Wall street have been the most transformative, challenging, and powerful of my life. History is being made in every meeting and decision and the actions we take resonate around the world. The most rewarding work for me has been sharing and training the strategic action skills I honed with Ruckus with a whole new group of engaged and dedicated activists who are using them everyday to build this movement." – Sam Corbin, OWS Activist and Ruckus Trainer

The U.S. has caught Occupy Fever, and Ruckus trainers have been on the ground since Day One at Occupy Wall Street and many other Occupations across the U.S. and Canada, helping provide training and support with strategic planning, media, technical communications, and actions! We know this is a game-changing moment and we’re doing everything we can to share our tools and harness the incredible energy of this moment to help take us beyond just sustaining encampments, and to take mass people-powered actions to flip this system of inequality & oppression on its head, and start achieving tangible change for the 99%! “We are unstoppable – another world is possible!”

Donate now to help us continue building skills, capacity, and strategy for the Occupy movement in 2012!


— VICTORY IN ANTI-TAR SANDS MOVEMENT —

Over 1,200 people were arrested for sitting in at the White House against the Keystone XL Pipeline Aug 20-Sep 3, 2011, including an Indigenous delegation pictured here on September 2nd. Photo Credit: Shadia Fayne Wood.

“It’s kind of amazing to an amateur like me that there are highly trained professionals able to jump in at a moment’s notice and pull off things like our huge August DC sit-in. But there are–and The Ruckus Society is a big reason why!” -Bill McKibben, 350 

“The Ruckus Society is one of the most revolutionary and strategically important organizations out there today. Their work supporting frontline communities in their efforts to internationalize the movement against the Canadian Tar Sands has resulted in an explosion of nonviolent civil disobedience against the dirty project in a half a dozen countries.” -Clayton Thomas-Muller, Indigenous Environmental Network

The fight against the Alberta Tar Sands project – the biggest, dirtiest extraction project ever – has become the climate justice movement’s flagship struggle against the dirty energy industry. Ruckus, with our Indigenous Peoples’ Power Project (IP3), has been working against the Tar Sands for years, and now in November 2011 – after helping train thousands and pull off sustained civil disobedience and mass acts of resistance against the Keystone XL Pipeline, the permit for this death-wish pipeline from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico has now been put on hold, and effectively killed! We are proud to have helped achieve this landmark victory, and will continue the fight until the Tar Sands are stopped once and for all.

Donate now to help us ensure the Keystone XL Pipeline does not get approved, and to continue the fight to end the Tar Sands altogether!


— ADDING STRENGTH TO THE MIGRANT RIGHTS MOVEMENT AS ANTI-IMMIGRANT LEGISLATION SPREADS —

Atlanta community members refused to work July 1st and instead took to the streets in a Day of Non-compliance to show how Georgia’s anti-immigrant bill HB87 would impact business as usual. “Georgia Doesn’t Grow Without Immigrants” banner by Ruckus trainers Marty Aranaydo and Cesar Maxit. Photo Credit: Sharon Lungo.

"We love Ruckus! Ruckus provided us with shared knowledge of tactics and skills that has allowed our community to continue our fight in the Struggle. We feel truly honored to have met and work with wonderful comrades."-Eva Cardenas, Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR)

2011 has been another big year for the Migrant Rights movement, as ‘show me your papers’ SB1070 copycat laws, so-called ‘Secure Communities’ programs, and other anti-immigrant legislation spreads like a disease throughout the States. Ruckus has continued training and developing skills and strategy within the migrant rights movement to help build its mass resistance capacity through workshops at the national Turning The Tide summit in Washington, DC, this May, extended on-the-ground training and action support with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights during their Summer of Human Rights in Atlanta, and continued strategic campaign support with our ongoing partners at National Day Laborer Organizing Network. This fight is just starting to heat up, so be on the watch as this movement grows and builds power to turn the tide against hate and criminalization!

Donate now to help us pull off our regional and national training camps with migrant rights partners in 2012!

2011 HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Quarantine the Kochs! Actions against the right-wing billionaires who fund the Tea Party, the climate-change denial machine, and some of the worst corporate front groups. Check out the blog from the Jan 30th action in Rancho Mirage, CA here.
  • Training and strategy support for Wisconsin communities in their historic fight against Governor Walker’s so-called “Budget Repair Bill”
  • Action support with US Uncut movement, including Tax Day action against tax-dodger Bank of America: a “Pay Up!” flashmob with Brass Liberation Orchestra to the tune of Salt-n-Pepa’s ‘Push It’ (See the video that gained a spot on Glenn Beck here!)
  • Training and action support for California community-based groups campaigning to make the banks pay, and end home foreclosures
  • Hosted an "Activist Tech Teach-In" with our partners at Aspiration, for a day-long set of hands-on workshops focused on empowering activists with the tools to use technology to support social change.
  • Showdown at Castlewood Country Club! Blockade with UNITE HERE 2850 at the Pleasanton, CA club’s golf tournament to demand an end to the Lockout against workers – check out the video!

  • Building Movement Through Action” – a community dialogue we hosted in Washington, DC, May 21st, to explore how communities are building people power through nonviolent direct action strategies. You can watch video footage of our speakers here!

  • Training and strategic campaign support for migrant rights movement nationally, and locally for Georgia’s Summer of Human Rights

  • Balloon Banner and mass action with Communities for a Better Environment, PODER, and California communities against the Cap & Trade bill
  • Training and action support against the Tar Sands with long-term indigenous community partners, and growing masses of climate justice activists against the Keystone XL Pipeline. Check this blog about the White House actions this August here.
  • Release of our new Security Culture for Activists” guide, and updates and expansion of our online resources. Download free resources here!
  • On-the-ground capacity-building, training, and action support for the Occupy Wall Str
    eet movement
    in New York and across the country! Check out more about our work with this movement here.