Inspired by the fight for workers’ rights in Madison and Occupy Wall Street, the 99% will rise up this spring.

Our economy is broken. The 1% are amassing more wealth and influence than ever and far too many of our leaders refuse to do what it takes to make the system work for the rest of us.

We’re in an election year, but instead of listening to the 99% and proposing solutions, we keep hearing politicians talk about more spending cuts and tax breaks for the 1%.

We have to make our call for change louder, bolder, and impossible to ignore.

If we do, we’ll transform the political landscape in America and force politicians to explain why they refuse to fight for the 99%.

That’s the vision for the 99% Spring—it’s up to all of us to turn it into a reality. The first step is coming together in unprecedented numbers to train and prepare ourselves for action.

Right now we’re organizing a massive effort to train 100,000 people—in the course of just one week—on how to take nonviolent direct action in spirit of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

We’ll be preparing ourselves to join an unprecedented series of actions planned nationwide to confront corporate power holders, end tax giveaways to the 1%, fight the influence of money in politics, and more. If you’ve never taken action before, now’s the time—the stakes are so high.

It’s a bold vision, but it can work if huge numbers of us join in.

The first step is to go to a 99% Spring action training. There’s one in Madison on Thursday, Apr. 12, at 6 pm and another on Saturday, April 14, at 10 am. Can you join in?

Yes, count me in!  

We’re uniting to take it to the next level during the 99% Spring because we need fundamental change in this country.

The trainings will be a fun, interactive experience where you’ll not only learn new skills, but also meet other people in your area who want to take action and stand up for the 99%.

Will you participate in the 99% Spring action training?

Yes, I’ll be there!

Each training will have its own local flavor, depending on who the trainers are and where it is located, but there is a common curriculum. The 99% Spring training combines storytelling; teach-ins on economics; community-building skills; goals, strategies and tactics to mount campaigns; and, of course, techniques of nonviolent direct action.

The 99% Spring Training is endorsed by the AFL-CIO, many individual labor unions and other groups including the South Central Federation of Labor.

Also: From Wisconsin 
to Wall Street

~ Tuesday, April 10 ~

Join SEIU’s Stephen Lerner for a discussion, From Wisconsin to Wall Street: Challenging the Power of the Super Rich, on Tuesday, April 10 at 7 pm, at the Pyle Center Auditorium, 702 Langdon St.

A growing movement of the 99% is using non-violent civil disobedience and direct action protests to challenge the power of Wall St. corporations and the big banks.

Lerner, architect of SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaign, is a labor and community organizer who has spent more than three decades organizing low-wage workers into unions. Lerner recently traveled to Brazil to learn more about the Bank Workers Union and Landless movements.

This event is sponsored by South Central Federation of Labor and the Labor and Working Class Studies Project.