The 99% Spring

I just got this email. I hope it's legit.

This April, 100,000 people will gather at nonviolent direct action trainings nationwide as part of the 99% Spring. Hundreds of trainings are already planned, and anyone can host an event. Can you host a 99% Spring action training during the week of April 9-15?

Last year, massive nonviolent direct action transformed America—from the protests for workers' rights in Madison that took over the state capitol for nearly a month, to the 1,000 people who performed civil disobedience at the White House to stop the Keystone XL pipeline, to Occupy Wall Street, we changed the political debate.

But still, millions of jobs have been destroyed, millions of homes foreclosed on, and an unconscionable number of children live in poverty. We have to do more to fix America, and we all know it. That's why people from across the 99% movement are preparing to take action this spring in bigger numbers than ever before to fight for change.

To prepare for the 99% Spring, groups from every corner of our movement are joining forces to do something that's never been tried before. During the week of April 9-15, across America, we will bring 100,000 people together for an unprecedented national movement-wide training on what happened to our economy, on the history of peaceful direct action, and how—following in the footsteps of Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—we can take direct action this spring to challenge corporate power, end tax giveaways to the 1%, fight the influence of money in politics, and more.

Can you sign up to host a local 99% Spring action training?

Yes, I'm interested in hosting a training.

Anyone can host a training—you can host just a handful of people in your living room or you can find a local community center, place of worship, campus, or public space and put together a larger event. We'll follow up with all the details and provide the support and guidance you'll need to coordinate an event and we'll help you connect and collaborate with other local 99% Spring volunteers and groups.

The heroes who took action for the 99% last year from Madison to Occupy Wall Street have now joined our shared American history of everyday people standing up to demand justice, freedom, and dignity. From the seamstress in Alabama who launched a bus boycott to the women in New York who dreamed they could one day speak with an equal voice to the mother who spoke up in Love Canal to stop the poisoning of her community, the power of nonviolent direct action has been essential in the great movements for social change in our country and around the world.

Right now our country needs a whole lot more of that spirit, because we need change on that scale again. The 99% Spring is our chance to step into the great tradition of creating lasting systemic change through nonviolent direct action—but it will only work if a huge number of us prepare ourselves and join in.

Can you step up and help bring the 99% Spring to your city this April?