December2

2008

It’s been a weird year. Full of question marks and worries and real hardship. Full of world-wide economic turmoil and no end in sight. We wish you all lots of warmth, camaraderie, and success in your organizing that helps pull us into a new and better world.

Unsurprisingly, our donations are way down, probably because Riseup is fully supported by members. We have never wanted to exist on the largess of foundations choosing to give us money one year, and then dropping us the next. In a more basic way, we want people to support us, and we want to practice mutual aid with you. If every riseup user could contribute just the money that they make from two hours of work every year, we would be doing great. Everyone who could afford it, that is. We know that lots of you cannot, and that is completely fine.

Another donation idea is that if you don’t want crap for the holidays, you could ask relatives to donate to riseup instead. Dollar for dollar, we are incredibly money conscious and deliberate how we use every cent.

Why riseup, you ask? You all probably know that we are a horizontal organization, without any hierarchy, and rely mostly on volunteer labor. But did you know we are environmentalists, too? E-waste is a big deal, and we get all our computers used, and we use them until they die, and then we pay to have them responsibly eradicated. And, did you know we are working on social organizing software for you? It is secure, free software that is designed to create collaborative spaces online, with lots of goodies and cool apps for activists. And, finally, maybe you should donate to riseup because we are building infrastructure that we want to last and thrive through the upcoming turmoil, and we think we are going to need some infrastructure, when other things fall.

Visit http://riseup.net/donate.

love and struggle,

The Riseup Birds