DATE: February 15, 2012

TO: America

RE: The 99% Spring

Things should never have reached this point.

Every day, the American Dream seems a little farther away. More of our grandparents are being thrown from their homes. Our mothers and fathers can’t retire because their pension funds tanked. Our brothers and sisters are burdened by student loan debt. For our children, budget cuts have resulted in crumbling schools, skyrocketing class sizes, and teachers being denied the supports they need to do their best. Our friends and family are being denied collective bargaining rights in their workplaces and are falling further and further behind. Our neighbors are being poisoned by pollution in our air and water.

The numbers are staggering: in recent years, millions of jobs have been destroyed, homes foreclosed, and an unconscionable number of children live in poverty.

And worst of all: this is no accident. It is a result of rampant greed—the deliberate manipulation of our democracy and our economy by a tiny minority in the 1%, by those who amass ever more wealth and power at our expense.

We are at a crossroads as a country. We have a choice to make. Greater wealth for a few or opportunity for many. Tax breaks for the richest or a fair shot for the rest of us. A government that can be bought by the highest bidder, or a democracy that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people.

The choice is in our hands. This spring, we will act on that choice and rise up in the tradition of our forefathers and foremothers. We will not be complicit with the suffering in our families for another year. We will prepare ourselves for sustained non-violent direct action.

From April 9-15 we will gather across America, 100,000 strong, in homes, places of worship, campuses and the streets to join together in the work of reclaiming our country. We will organize trainings to:

Tell the story of our economy: how we got here, who’s responsible, what a different future could look like, and what we can do about it Learn the history of non-violent direct action, and Get into action on our own campaigns to win change.

This spring we rise! We will reshape our country with our own hands and feet, bodies and hearts. We will take non-violent action in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi to forge a new destiny one block, one neighborhood, one city, one state at a time.

We know great change is possible. We inherit a history of everyday people standing up for their own dignity, freedom, and self-determination, shaping our direction as a country. The seamstress in Alabama who launched a bus boycott. The farmers in New England and Virginia who imagined we could be a free nation. The workers in Flint, Michigan who occupied their plant to win collective bargaining rights. The farmworkers in California who liberated our fields. The women in New York who dreamed they could one day speak with equal voice. The mother who stood up in Love Canal to stop the poisoning of her community. And the students who risked their lives during Freedom Summer to register voters.

In the last year alone we watched the teachers and fire fighters of Wisconsin stand for the rights of workers. And we joined those who Occupied Wall Street, inspiring us to stand with the 99%.

We will rise this spring, because we DO hold these truths to be self evident—that all men and women are created equal, that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Will you rise with us? Can we count on you to join us April 9th to 15th to stand with the 99% for America?

Signers:





Sarita Gupta

Jobs With Justice

Bob King

United Auto Workers

George Goehl

National Peoples Action

Ai-jen Poo

National Domestic Workers Alliance

Justin Ruben

MoveOn.org

Joy Cushman & Judith Freeman

New Organizing Institute

Liz Butler

Movement Strategy Center

John Sellers

The Other 98%

Mary Kay Henry

Service Employees International Union

Van Jones and Natalie Foster

Rebuild the Dream

John Wilhelm

UNITE-HERE

Phil Radford

Greenpeace

John Cavanaugh

Institute for Policy Studies

Scott Reed

PICO National Network

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Tracy Van Slyke and Ilana Berger

New Bottom Line

Leo Gerard

United Steel Workers

Daniel Cantor

Working Families Party

Larry Cohen

Communications Workers of America

Victor Sanchez Jr

United States Student Association

Becky Tarbotton

Rainforest Action Network

Randi Weingarten

American Federation of Teachers

Brian Kettenring

Leadership Center for the Common Good

Randy Jackson

UNITY

Saket Soni

National Guestworker Alliance

Bill McKibben and May Boeve

350.org

Sharon Lungo and Megan Swoboda

The Ruckus Society

Ian Inaba

Citizen Engagement Lab

Patrick Reinsborough

smartMeme Strategy & Training Project

Rachel LaForest

Right to the City Alliance

Brigid Flaherty

Pushback Network

Tim Carpenter

Progressive Democrats of America

Bob Callahan

Change to Win

Michael Leon Guerrero

Grassroots Global Justice Alliance

Roger Hickey

Campaign for America’s Future

Aaron Ostrom

Fuse Washington

Jeff Ordower

Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment

Karen Scharff

Citizen Action of New York

Marianne Manilov

Engage

Bruce Klipple

United Electrical Workers Union

Pablo Alvarado

National Day Laborers Organizing Network

LeeAnn Hall

Alliance for a Just Society

Leslie Moody

The Partnership for Working Families

Teresa Cheng

United Students Against Sweatshops