MoveOn's "99% Spring Training" is an extremely questionable event series that has been discussed extensively, so I won't repeat what it purports to be or what others have said about it.
One of the problems with it is that MoveOn is being very opaque about the actual content of the 'trainings'. So I found the training documentation. You should be able to access all the documents here. Here's some of the "What the fuck! No one mentioned any of this" moments I had reading through it.
From the "99% Spring half day trainer notes" pdf
This week of training is designed to prepare us all for six weeks of action.
Six weeks of "action"? Where was that mentioned?
The 99% Spring video will walk you and your guests through most of the material, but you will need to pause the video at various points to lead discussions and exercises.
So apparently the format is a movie interspersed with discussions.
Tell our families’ stories to let go of our shame, discover what connects us and build solidarity.
I have to say, I've read quite a bit about how cults work, and public confessions like that are a nigh-universal tool. This is sketchy as fuck.
Sign up sheets for working groups to carry your group’s activism forward (with sign up for coordinating teams on Actions, Recruitment and Outreach, Media, Resources)
Just in case anyone had any doubts that MoveOn is trying to steal the energy of Occupy for their own competing organization...
Edit: from the full day trainer notes
Arrest and Civil Disobedience
You are likely to get questions about the mechanics of risking arrest or other legal parts of Civil Disobedience actions. We have made a deliberate decision not to include this in the curriculum. Some "high risk" civil disobedience actions can result in emotional trauma, physical violence from authorities, or legal consequence.
IOW they're not actually teaching direct action.
Edit2: As suspected, their ideas of "Direct Action" are "move your money," a "Fossil Fuel Subsidy Sit-In," and "send Wall Street the Bill on April 17th". None of which are actually direct action...
Edit3: I'm looking for anything, anything at all, that is implicitly critical of Democrats. There's a chart in the Full-Day Participant Guide showing wages decoupling from productivity (page 22)- there's a cutoff conveniently at 1980, even though the process obviously begins several years earlier in the chart. On the same page, talking about "the 1% went global," no mention that NAFTA was signed by Clinton, nor his enthusiastic support for corporate globalization ("free trade"). And of course the unions were passive victims- never mind their strategic blunder in deciding to move attention from the point of production to the halls of government (a mistake which is endemic to their hierarchical and authoritarian organizational model). Never mind, there's a little one two pages later. So, good for them.
Edit4: Finally found the first mention of actual direct action, page 37 of the Full-Day Participant Guide. They have it labeled as "Intervention" and "Creative Solution" for some bullshit reason. "Non-Cooperation" is on the fence for being direct action but I'd give it the benefit of the doubt (it's more like "direct inaction" but the principle is there). The examples under "Protest" definitely are not direct action; so, of course, those are the things MoveOn chooses to focus on in this "direct action training".
And the part about "shifting the balance of power with those who can make decisions" is basically the exact opposite of direct action- if YOU aren't making the decisions, it's not direct action... it's begging.
Edit5: Fuck these guys. I'm watching the one hour video. Their "history" is complete horsecrap. For these worthless motherfuckers to even MENTION the IWW is a desecration.
