DISPATCHES:
The latest from Beautiful Trouble
Collective Liberation Means Ending Apartheid, Settler Colonialism, and the Occupation of Palestine
We reaffirm our solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation and people everywhere struggling against oppression and colonization.
The Climate Fight is Heating Up, Much Like the Climate 🤬
The New, The Work, The Real World!
The Tricky Relationship between Social Movements and NGOs
Bringing points of understanding to all in the discussion of resource allocation to on-the-ground social movements and activists.
Meet Us In The Streets in Two Weeks!
August is here, the international End Fossil Fuels March is gearing up, and the fascists at the wheels of capitalism are unrelenting in the face of the fires of a climate crisis brought to us by oil companies, banks, and politicians profiting from it all. The discipline of hope is imperative as we organize all the beautiful trouble possible to meet the moment.
Joy & Resistance Under the Sun
Catch up with the Beautiful Trouble Team - Toolbox Updates, Pride Around the World, and our Brand New Podcast are all inside!
Following the *LEAD* of Farmed Animals
The Beautiful Trouble facilitation team — Sarah Nahar, Carolina Munis, and Rae Abileah — facilitated a four-day training on building people-powered movements for the global leadership training for farmed animal advocates.
MAY DAY Is Every Day!
We have some exciting updates to share with you! There’s another free training this month, new tools in our online toolbox, and more for your good fight in your precious corner of the globe.
Change Is In the Air!
Beautiful Trouble has NEW content, NEW introductory trainings, a NEW article on YES! Magazine, and MORE!
Let’s Get Free in 2023!
As we eased into 2023, we reflected on what we accomplished in the face of rising fascism and deepening climate emergency in the previous year. Here are some of the 2022 highlights of Beautiful Trouble by the numbers!
GURU FUND: Role Model Zambia resists repression with solidarity from the GURU fund
Activists from Role Model Zambia found themselves at a crossroads while protesting the Zambian government's refusal to reimburse the Zambian taxpayers after 64 cabinet ministers illegally stayed on in office following the 2016 dissolution of Parliament.
GURU Fund: Makerere University-Fees Must Fall!
#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.
GURU Fund: Amuru youth strike again
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.
GURU FUND: Zimbabwe National Student Union carries out HoldTheDoor! action
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.
GURU Grantee: Right Care Alliance
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.
GURU fund awardees Friends of Zoka creatively curtail charcoal barons
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.
GURU Grantee: Zimbabwe's rural teachers demand a wage
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.
GURU Grantee: Africa Unite School Club
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.
Hired! Job Posting: Bookkeeper
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.
Beautiful Trouble Goes to School
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.