#FeesMustFall was triggered by a proposed 15 percent annual increase in fees for privately sponsored students (more than half of the student body) in Uganda. It was also backed by reports of misappropriation of funds that ran in the millions under Janet Museveni, the First Lady of Uganda and Minister of Education.

Amuru Youth Development Forum mobilized 25 young activists to impound vehicles carrying logs to thwart deforestation. 37 trucks have been impounded so far with about 7400 bags of charcoal destroyed or redistributed to the local community.

In March 2021, the Zimbabwean Government approved a fees increase of up to a massive 450 percent for universities following proposals by tertiary institutions in the country. A number of brave Zimbabwean students pushed for a complete reversal of the policy. They organised a blockade at the administration building, and sang and chanted while addressing other students and informing them of their right to quality, affordable education.

Insulin continues to be the poster child for how the American healthcare system is failing as people struggle to afford and ration their insulin. On a cold November morning, 80 people gathered at Galaxy Park in Cambridge, MA, at the premises of several pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate.

A group of activists from the little-known village of Alupinzinzuru , Adjumani District known as Friends of Zoka are courageously disrupting illegal logging and commercial charcoal burning.

Civil servants in Zimbabwe are earning the Zimbabwe dollar equivalent of around $40 a month — twelve times lower than the poverty line. In October 2020, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) rallied for a living wage.

Wearing their school uniform to deter excessive force from the police, the pupils from the Africa Unite School Club sat outside with powerful messages, songs, and chants, demanding that the parliamentary committee on climate change increase funding towards environmental protection before approving the 2020 national budget.

Are you passionate about creative activism, social movements and Quickbooks? Are you a detail oriented, number-literate activist? Here is an opportunity to work with a network of creative changemakers under a 501(c)3 umbrella as they build a more solid organizational foundation for either world domination or financial sustainability, whichever comes first.

Even with the limitations of the virtual format, the class showed how Beautiful Trouble could be brought into the classroom to animate the curriculum, energize the students, and help make a better world.

Beautiful Trouble is looking to expand our small but mighty collective by hiring someone to coordinate translations. You will work with a growing network of translators to translate and disseminate content from Beautiful Trouble’s award-winning creative activism toolbox across many languages, and several formats (book, card-deck, online knowledge-base).

The case of Indian climate activist Disha Ravi should be ringing alarm bells far and wide. This young climate activist has been criminally charged and is being publicly vilified for the most basic forms of activism imaginable: collaborating with others in a Google Doc and a Whatsapp group on a toolkit for people wanting to demonstrate in solidarity with striking Indian farmers.

Climate Clock is a collaboration between Beautiful Trouble and March for Science, powered by climate scientists, artists, educators, and activists across the world. Applications are open for five new positions.

At last (finally!), all the best tools from our books — sourced from frontline activists around the world — are now online, free, and available in five languages!

This is Nadine Bloch, reporting live from the streets of DC… where we are reclaiming public space and pushing forward creative messaging for impeachment, removal and expulsion (aka what we have been doing everyday for the last year!). Here are some highlights.

At the end of a rough year, it’s a time to honor our losses, and to celebrate the possibility of good things ahead in 2021!

This year we lost our beloved, visionary Beautiful Solutions co-editor Elandria Williams. As we grieve this monumental loss, we are even more committed to sharing Elandria’s powerful and prophetic work. We invite you to join us in celebrating and honoring Elandria by continuing to grow the solutions E knew we needed, wherever you are.

Turnout, especially in polarized times like these, wins elections. The stakes in this election — whether we have a livable planet, whether kids are incarcerated in detention centers and, perhaps, whether we continue to have a functional democracy — are high. And when the stakes are this high, it’s time to get creative. 

We are ready for YOU! The Resistance Hotline is a new take on a 1-800 support line offering training and nonviolent action planning to defend the integrity of our elections and build a strong progressive movement.

Beautiful Trouble seeks new Communications Coordinator

Beautiful Trouble is a book, card deck, web toolbox, creative campaign incubator, and international network of artist-activist-trainers helping grassroots movements be more creative, effective, and irresistible.

When 25 revolutionary youth organizers from all across Africa converged at ActionAids training centre in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2018, we didn't know what to expect. Our convening birthed Beautiful Trouble Africa, a network that assembled this phenomenal new toolkit.

“Defund the Police!” has moved from fringe idea to nearly law of the land so fast, pundits have motion sickness. It shows what can happen when progressive ideas are backed by true people power in a kind of “People’s Shock Doctrine.” (This phenomenon is an inversion of the “Shock Doctrine” that Naomi Klein observed, in which a traumatized population cedes control to corporate power in a moment of crisis.)

So how has all of this moved so quickly?