Day 5 Of Countdown To Launch: Bill Moyer

December 7th, 2017

Awake Goy

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On December 10, 2017, Popular Resistance is beginning a new phase.

As we count down to that date, we are featuring some of the people behind Popular Resistance.

Bill Moyer is an artist-activist, percussionist and strategist living in Vashon, Washington. He is the founder and executive director of the Backbone Campaign, which “amplifies the aspirations of ‘We the People’ with creative strategies and artful activism to manifest a world where life, community, nature, and our obligations to future generations are honored as sacred.”

Bill and Popular Resistance co-founders, Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, have collaborated on issues for a long time. Bill was part of the national team that organized the occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC in 2011. He created the cardboard box “Shanty Town” and the giant tarp with the words “Community,” “Democracy,” and “Dignity” on it, both of which sheltered many people in the early days. He also brought a giant “We the People” Constitution, which people signed, and a giant earth that was carried in marches. His strategic guidance was critical to the successful occupation.

Bill Moyer, left with black t shirt and glasses on his head, and other core October2011 team members strategize during the early days of the occupation.

Bill Moyer, left with black t shirt with yellow letters and glasses on his head, and other core October2011 team members meet during the early days of the occupation.

Bill has collaborated with Popular Resistance on a number of campaigns. He was a big part of the campaign to stop the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) as a strategic adviser and core participant in our four activist training camps. Bill made all of our actions into spectacles by leading activists in the creation of large pieces of art that were used in the actions, such as the 32-foot “TPP Express,” wide and tall mesh banners, giant puppets and colorful flags. Bill also taught “drumming for marches” and led percussion in our actions.

Popular Resistance has also collaborated with the Backbone Campaign in the Light Brigades. Teams in towns across the country use stage lights to project messages on buildings. They also use light up letters to display messages.

The Backbone Campaign also supports campaigns on a broad range of issues and they train activists at the yearly “Localize This!” action camp on Vashon Island. Backbone was a key part of the sHellNo! kayaktivism in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR to stop arctic oil drilling.

We could write a book about how wonderful Bill and the Backbone Campaign are, but we won’t do that today. Here is what Bill has to say about Popular Resistance”

“I’ve worked with Popular Resistance since before it was Popular Resistance. I camped out with Margaret and Kevin in Freedom Plaza, knew Margaret from her work in health care and Kevin from his in democracy work.

I’ve always felt that their leadership was crucial for my own development as a change agent, their mentorship and collaboration has been key to my own exploration of how do we make change, how do we act to make the greatest impact and to be most effective, and for the work we do to connect the dots on the underlying values and struggle that we are all a part of.

I’m excited that Popular Resistance is entering this new phase. Their already tireless work at celebrating the most important efforts around the country, their capacity to jump on with incredible nimbleness the opportunities to expose the corruption of our system and appeal to what’s best in people.

And I think at this time when there’s so much divisiveness and there’s so much emphasis on resistance in a party-based way, the fierce political independence of Popular Resistance and their incredible dedication to movement building is exactly the direction we need to be going as change agents committed to really solving root problems and not merely reacting to the assault on our dignities and our aspirations.

In the dark and challenging times that we live in, we also see the most positive and bright manifestations that are demonstrating the world we want to live in. So right when we have the profanities of Trump, simultaneously we have the sacred activism of Standing Rock.

We’re in a populist moment and populism is a completely real, understandable, reasonable reaction to the intense corruption of the system that we live within. What’s essential is that in this popular resistance, we’re appealing to the very best in people rather than the very worst in people.

It’s critical that we have movement organizations like Popular Resistance helping us to do that, connecting us to each other, helping us tell our story to the world, and also reflecting back to us who we are as a people and as a movement.

So, I am incredibly grateful for all of the work and lessons I’ve learned from Popular Resistance for these many years and I’m very much looking forward to the future collaborations going forward.”

We are also excited about this next phase of resistance and continuing to support and augment the capacity of activists across the country. Join us for the Spring Single Payer Activist training if you are interested in learning skills from Backbone Campaign and Popular Resistance. Sign up at HealthOverProfit.org to receive more information.

See photos of Bill and his creative activism below: