Greenpeace Launches Summer of Resistance to Dial Up Peaceful Direct Action against the Trump Administration and the Right's Attacks on Justice and the Environment

Today, Greenpeace USA launched a summer-long initiative to educate thousands of people across the country in the basics of non-violent direct action. The "Summer of Resistance" tour will visit more than a dozen sites across the country, with a focus on "distributed organizing" meant to inspire 100 peaceful creative actions across the country.

Watch the launch video here:

"We are at a turning point in the history of this country," Greenpeace USA Executive Director Annie Leonard said. "All that the movements for justice, equity, and the environment have fought for is threatened by the current power in Washington. People everywhere have marched, crowded the offices and jammed the phone lines of their representatives, and organized in their communities. But there is a feeling in the air that something more is needed. Now is the time for non-violent direct action.

"For 46 years, our activists have put their bodies on the line to protect the planet and vulnerable communities. We have worked to share non-violent direct action strategies and skills with movement allies, training thousands of people across the world in safe, strategic use of peaceful resistance to advance justice. This summer we are opening the doors wide to bring in as many people as we can."

The tour will convene local activists at each stop, beginning on the first weekend of July in Chicago. The distributed component will begin with a live, non-violent direct action training webcast on June 25th to educate and inspire activists to begin developing the 100 non-violent direct actions. Greenpeace will offer a resource manual to think strategically about creative, non-violent resistance (available June 22,) as well as a website where people can post and discover issues, creative resistance actions, and access public resources.

The trainings, which will stop in major cities across the country, as well as a number of locations where local activists are challenging fossil-fuel transport infrastructure, will employ Greenpeace's network of activist trainers to teach the basics of non-violent direct action tactics and theory. The distributed organizing component will depend upon activists collaboratively developing local creative resistance actions. In both cases, Greenpeace volunteer leaders can help activists and attendees think strategically about developing peaceful creative resistance actions in their communities.

For more information, including a schedule of the tour and links to materials, contact Jason Schwartz: jason.schwartz@greenpeace.org, +1.347.452.3752