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The Backbone Campaign specializes in the creation of spectacle imagery, innovative messaging and political theater. Most of our work involves what we call Artful Activism, in which we engage progressive activists and organizers in the strategic use of creative tactics such as festival arts, flash mobs, music and other theatrical forms of nonviolent direct action.
News and Events Archived (12)
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Get Your Chocolatatda Tickets or Reserve a Table Today!
The Backbone Campaign is bringing its Chocolatada to Seattle! Flowing with delicious drinkable chocolate, inspiration, beauty and hilarity, we'll toast local heroes and turn ripples into waves of social transformation. Fantastic LIVE music, Aerialists, and even a Wheel of Fortune style game show guarantees we all go home winners. Seattle's favorite emcee, the brilliant and delightful Kevin Joyce will host the evening, humorously guiding us through inspirational performances and stories from the front lines of social change. Fabric aerialist Esther Edelman will enthrall with lyrical beauty and thrilling aerial acrobatics while musical sculptor Ela Lamblin of Lelavision amazes with "Scupltaural" ear candy from his musical creations. The Aviatrix aerial ensemble will dance upon giant suspended "martinis" and musical ensemble Correo Aereo will open hearts with their contemporary acoustic renditions of traditional melodies from Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela. Now is the perfect time to plan a fun night out! So, mark your calendar - Call your friends - Reserve a table (or half a table), and get your tickets early. This is going to be a wonderful gathering of fantastic people, celebrating the great work we are all doing together. Activism without the Backbone Campaign, would be like a world without chocolate. This is a fun way to make sure there remains an abundance of both. This is our one big fundraising event this year, so please help make it an unforgettably huge success! Forward Joyously! Team Backbone ALERT - LUMBAR CLUB members get 2-for-1 Chocolatada Tickets, SO join today! If you are in the Lumbar Club call the office for your SECRET CODE. If you have other questions about how to reserve a table or half a table for your friends or organization, or with to volunteer, please call the office at (206)-408-8058, or email the organizing team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . |
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"Overnight At The Supreme Court: Best. Marriage. Equality. Photo. Ever."
Written by Bill Moyer
Though there needs to be a discussion about the separation of church and state, including the removal of sacramental terms from civil language, there is really no room for debate on equality. It is self-evident that marriage equality is a civil right.
I am deeply proud that Backbone could of play a support role in the courageous projection action executed by our allies at Get Equal. The action team deserves our gratitude and admiration for making this technically difficult action happen on the perfect day, at the perfect location, with the perfect message.
Join me in recognizing the bold leadership of Get Equal with a contribution here.
Forward together!
Bill Moyer
A drive for new members with a Matching Grant to DOUBLE the value of every first time* donation!
| On Christmas Eve, we received a letter from a long time supporter who believes deeply in the Artful Activism of the Backbone Campaign. In the Letter was a challenge, a $10,000 matching fund for bringing in new members! With many people making their last minute end of year, tax-deductible (while it lasts?) gifts, TODAY is the perfect time to launch our "Backbone-a-Thon." Our current goals are to:
Though rebellion is a muscle that must be exercised, it should be clear from the 2012 Highlights below that this kind of exercise is FUN! All of the below were taken at a actions we either led or provided tactical support for. Enjoy and then please proudly and enthusiastically invite your friends to become part of this joyful, innovative, effective Artful Activist organization! 2013 is the perfect time to amplify Backbone's capacity to invigorate our movement of movements using strategic organizing and creative tactics to deliver power to We the People! |
 It takes Backbone to stand up for progressive values, but it is rewarding. Although Devin is being escorted out of a sit-in in a Senator's office, neither he, nor anyone of our team was arrested in the past nine years.
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Enjoy 2012 Highlights: Only when the People Lead, will the Leaders Follow:
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| More about achievements in 2012: Backbone Campaign's 2012 goals were to strategically use and build expertise in creative tactics that incorporate elements of spectacle, humor, art, music, metaphor, ridicule, praise and ritual; as well as campaign strategy, media, and collaboration, in order to:
Thanks to the generous support of our many supporters, we continue to be enormously successful. Our 2012 Artful Activism Trainings deepened and expanded our partnerships with community-based activists around the country, enabling them to build local capacity to deliver victories through artful, “solutionary engagement” (i.e. - combining critique with proposal, proposition with opposition). In 2012, the Backbone Campaign customized trainings and campaign support for activists in over 10 communities (Bellingham (WA), Bainbridge Island (WA), Biloxi/Gulfport (MS), Charlotte (NC), Olympia (WA), Pasadena (CA), Seattle (WA), Spokane (WA), Tacoma (WA), Vashon Island (WA), Washington (DC), and Baltimore (MD). We collaborated with over 35 grassroots and national partners to develop the overall strategy and conceptualize the most effective messages and creative tactics for their campaigns.
Your support is crucial to our continued capacity to serve a growing progressive movement with generosity, intelligence and strategic creativity. |
A drive for new members with a Matching Grant to DOUBLE the value of every first time* donation!
On Christmas Eve, we received a letter from a long time supporter who believes deeply in the Artful Activism of the Backbone Campaign. In the Letter was a challenge, a $10,000 matching fund for bringing in new members! With many people making their last minute end of year, tax-deductible (while it lasts?) gifts, TODAY is the perfect time to launch our "Backbone-a-Thon."
Our current goals are to:
- Win that $10,000 match (double it!) to fund more training and actions, Please Donate Now!
- Receive 100 tax-deductible donations of ANY amount from new and existing members Please Donate Now! and
- Get 1000 new Facebook "Likes" & Email sign-ups and volunteers HERE.
Backbone Campaign is a 501(c)(3) public charity so ALL donations are tax-deductible. Give $50 or more and receive a Backbone Campaign T-Shirt or a pound of bold and rich Backbone Blend coffee. Get both with a $100 contribution! [*There are exceptions for those who significantly increase their contributions, and there is a $3000 maximum donation according to the matching grant stipulations.]
Though rebellion is a muscle that must be exercised, it should be clear from the 2012 Highlights below (Click on "Read more" button) that THIS kind of exercise is FUN! Please help us spread the word about Backbone Campaign and invite your friends to Check out this fun collection of action shots and 2012 annual report.
Ecotopia or Fossil Fuel Corridor?
Extraction Resistance and the Future of the Pacific NW
by
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
photo by Jonathan Hayward/The Canandian Press
The threatened transformation of the Pacific Northwest into an energy corridor for fossil fuels may be the region's defining issue of our time. The battles against the pipelines, coal mines and coal plants, coal trains and coal ports, tankers, fracking and LNG export terminals in the Pacific Northwest are heating up. The Defend Our Coast rally was a pivotal moment, a milestone in an unprecedented process of coming together to occupy a common vision, shared aspirations and our collective, cross-border power to shape the future.
Student Debt Jubilee & Why Higher Education Ought to be Free
Written by Bill Moyer[READ - Natalia & Kyle's 8/15/12 article on Huffington Post, America's Student Loan Debt]
Student Debt Jubilee & Why Higher Education Ought to be Free.
2 Segments:
PART II, July 17, 2012 
Prezi - visual accompaniment by co-host Glenn Daniels Jr.
PART I, Dec. 22, 2012
We are excited to share with you this podcast and resource page built from the information gained and resources assembled for and from our recent interviews to propel this movement forward:
Direct Action Training for Communities Confronting Coal, Fracking, & Tars Sands Projects
Workshop Location:
Salem Lutheran Church Youth Center
1428 West Broadway Avenue, Spokane, Washington
Join us for our Eviction Free Zone Training in Tacoma, WA April 28 & 29, 2012.
Location: First United Methodist Church in Tacoma, 621 Tacoma Avenue
Register HERE.
More information on this issue at our Bail Out America - Occupy Our Homes podcast and resource page.
Save The Date! March 23
Red Hot Police WHO Clash Kinky Petty Cash
A Raucous Rock-N-Roll Backbone Event to Welcome the American Spring
When: Friday, March 23 @ 8:00pm (All ages until 11pm)
Where: Red Bicycle Bistro & Sushi on Vashon Island, WA
Who: EMCEE Steffon Moody & Some of Vashon's Finest Musical Talent
Advance tickets at BrownPaperTickets.com
Occupy the Courts Rally on January 20, 2012 across from US Supreme Court
Written by Bill Moyer
Occupy the Courts, Washington, DC
Jan. 20, 2012 11:45 AM-1 PM
US Capitol Lawn (East side) across from US Supreme Court
Greetings,
My name is Bill Moyer and I direct the Backbone Campaign, an ally of the Move to Amend Coalition. Last year, the Backbone Campaign and our partners at the Coffee Party hosted the first anniversary rally and strategy summit. This year, Move to Amend and others are taking the lead. They asked Backbone to provide creative support for this year's rally and potential* nonviolent civil disobedience action immediately following the rally.
This second anniversary event will escalate our demands for a Constitutional remedy for the offensive doctrine of corporate personhood and the corrosive equation of money (property) with political speech. And we will do so with beauty, humor, and a love for democracy we know is possible. We will have a giant 28th Amendment, the sign on the right, and a song and dance group "The Supremes" performing some of your favorite tunes (slightly modified).
Here's the Scenario:
11:45 Feeder marches arrive from DC Occupations
11:45 - "Preshow" entertainment by the Supremes
12:00 - Speakers hosted by David Cobb of Move to Amend will include Thom Hartmann and others.
12:30 - Potential nonviolent civil disobedience action
1:30 head to Methodist building for 2-5 PM strategy meeting (Across street from Rally and US Supreme Court)
We need your help to make this rally and a
ction as powerful as it deserves to be. Some needs:
- 9 Black Graduation Gowns & White wigs (I know - US Justices don't wear wigs)
- Song and Dance people who can rehearse on the 18th and 19th.
- Videographers and photographers who can can document this action
- People to spread the word and promote in the DC area
- Someone who can help with sewing
- A van and crew for setting up stage
- A crew of 8 plus backup for giant signs (see to the right)
- A crew of 10 for the new giant 28th Amendment scroll that will debut on 1/20/12
- *Please contact me ASAP if you are interested in training for and participating in an orchestrated, arrestable nonviolent creative action. seek We are ing for 20 or more people for this. Support people also needed.
Please contact me at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or c.206-356-9980 to let me know what you can bring to this important collaboration.
In collaboration and solidarity,
Bill Moyer
Backbone Campaign
206-356-9980
Map of Capitol. Our rally location marked in red: (click for larger version)
