On Tuesday morning Townhall.com reported that Move.org would partner with 40 leftist groups, many of which are national unions, to train 100,000 occupiers as part of a nationwide event called the “The 99% Spring.”
According to MoveOn.org’s website the movement will:
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the fight for workers in Madison, Wisconsin, the 99% will rise up this spring. In the span of just one week, from April 9-15, 100,000 people will be trained to tell the story of what happened to our economy, learn the history of non-violent direct action, and use that knowledge to take action on our own campaigns to win change.
Of the 915 events planned across the country for The 99% Spring, seven are slated for the District of Columbia between April 12 – April 15, with others planned for Arlington, Va. and Takoma, Silver Spring, College Park, Wheaton and Greenbelt, Md. during the same timeframe.
So far 165 people are signed up for the DC trainings, including 45 sign-ups for the Student Direct Action Training to be held at George Washington University on Sunday, April 15.
Just who will be leading the student uprising training?
According to Moveon.org, the student training will be led by Samuel Nelson, a GWU student and member of GW’s Progressive Student Union; Ash Lauth, an employee at the Energy Acton Coaliton – the self-proclaimed “hub of the youth climate movement;” Melissa Byrne, a community organizer and member of the McPherson Square Occupy DC camp, Barbara Cornejo, a trainer at Children’s Defense Fund- the left-wing advocacy group Hillary Clinton worked at for a short time before she became First Lady.
Most of the other District of Columbia“99% Spring Trainings” are being held at the headquarters of the Communications Workers for America (CWA) – a prominent national union.
Trainers for these events include:
- Lillian Walker Shelton, an union organizer and organizer for Jobs with Justice;
- Joan Stallard, a Moveon.org staffer who previously led a protest against BP after the oil spill in the gulf,
- Lore Rosenthal, an activist from Greenbelt, Md. who has been traveling across the country to various occupy groups, including Occupy Orlando, where she helped the group try to “Occupy the Court” in opposition to the Citizens United court ruling;
- And Ben Dalgetty, the new media consultant for the Association of Flight Attendants – the largest flight attendent union in the world. Dalgetty is also a former organizer for the Obama Campaign for Change and was Editor-in-Chief of the Occidental Weekly during his time at Occidental College.
Google search any of the other names of the listed trainers for the nationwide events and the words “union” or “occupy,” and you will likely find the information you’re looking for on the first page.
Whether or not the trainings will result in more intense and sustained occupations in DC and elsewhere is TBD. Speaking just for DC, which will celebrate its six-month anniversary this Friday, the answer is probably not.
About Francesca Chambers
and so it continues…….be ready America!