Who is behind the Tesla protests?
Follow the timeline to see the cast of characters behind the scenes: Indivisible, the Democratic Party and its proxies
Cast of Characters
Seattle
Valerie Costa - protest “organizer,” founder of Aril Consulting, a NGO fundraising firm:
Organizations
ActBlue
Funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, Leah Hunt-Hendrix
Democratic Socialists of America, EIN 133109557
The Disruption Project, 501(c)(4), based in Philadelphia
Disruption-Project.org, EIN 85-1066939
Jeffrey Ordower
Indivisible Project, EIN 814944067,
Oil and Gas Action Network
Instagram: “Supporting grassroots & frontlines movements taking action to end the era of fossil fuels.”
Instagram: @oilandgasactionnetwork
Tesla Takedown
Instagram @tesla.takedown
Troublemakers
Instagram @troublemakercommunity
seattletroublemakers@gmail.com
Rise & Resist
Tech platforms
ActionNetwork.com
https://actionnetwork.org/events/tesla-takedown-delray-beach-florida
Wix.com — TeslaTakedown.com registered here
Proxy Protection LLC — TeslaTakedown.com registered anonymously here
SquareSpace — Disruption-Project.org registered here
Media supporters
Democracy Now!
Amy Goodman, host
GreenRedPodcast
Instagram @greenredpodcast
THE LAUNCH
Feb. 12, 2025 - TeslaTakedown.com registered anonymously
On Feb. 12, 2025, someone went to the Wix.com website platform and anonymously registered a website — TeslaTakedown.com — to take aim at one man: Elon Musk.
The person went to the extra cost of registering the domain so that the registrant’s identity would be hidden by Proxy Protection LLC, based in Brea, Calif.
Within weeks, the FBI would be investigating the people behind the attacks for a serious crime: domestic terrorism.
Who is behind anti-Musk protests?
To discover, I did what I do: I built a timeline of events, a cast of characters and a family tree.
In an interview in which the host note Luigi Mangione’s murder of the United Healthcare CEO as indicative of frustration with corporations, Seattle protest “organizer” Valerie Costa said in an interview that when they saw Musk engaged in “criminal” activity with the new Trump administration, she said activists realized: “We can target Elon here.”
Feb. 13, 2025 - Website chronicled first protest
In an online article at TroubleMakersCommunity.org, the group wrote:
Dozens of protesters demonstrated at the Tesla showroom in South Lake Union at lunch today, part of a nationwide call for a boycott in light of CEO Elon Musk’s unhinged crime spree against the American people. Unelected, unvetted, unconfirmed, and without a legal position in government, Musk and his minions have made clear their disdain for the temporary restraining orders and other legal proceedings against their illegal shutdown of Congressionally-created agencies and departments, illegal bullying of Federal employees, dangerous intrusion into government databases, and even apparent theft of already-disbursed New York City funds.
“Everywhere around me, I see people who understand the danger, and fascism and other history scholars call it what it is: a coup. But our members of Congress are failing us utterly, and the judicial branch is being ignored, “ said Margie Bone, a retired psychiatrist and member of the group Troublemakers. “Tesla is Musk’s cash machine—diminishing his power with protests and boycotts is one of the levers most readily at hand for regular people. Every day that passes, more is lost, and the harder it gets to rebuild the decades of work and trust that he’s destroying.”
Among other signs, the protesters had “tombstones” that read “RIP Rule of Law”, “RIP Democracy”, "RIP Truth", and “RIP Privacy”. They lay flowers down on these graves in a symbolic move that they hope will inspire members of Congress—and the general population—to rise from the dead, and fight for the best things that America has always claimed to represent.
“The danger to the U.S. is unprecedented,” says Johanna Lundahl, a Troublemaker and recent graduate of the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington. “The chaos is so extreme that it’s impossible to parse the distractions from the crimes that are intended to stick while we’re overwhelmed—but it’s clear that they’re doing everything they can to weaken the most important parts of the U.S. government. Musk is out of control, and Trump is thrilled.”
Protesters say that actions will continue—and escalate—as long as the lawlessness continues. The action today was a shot across the bow for the national actions--and another one is already planned for Seattle at 10am on Saturday.
photo credit: Elliot Stoller
Feb. 27, 2025: @GreenRedPodcast “Taking Down Tesla w/ Valerie”
@greenredpodcast posted:
The Fuck Musk episode
🎙️: link in bio
Elon Musk is a dangerous oligarch running a hostile corporate takeover operation on the federal government via the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In response, people around the world have mobilized to hurt him where it hurts… his pocketbook. In recent weeks, one of his companies, Tesla, had lost 25% in market share and been the target of widespread protests.
In our latest, Scott talks with Valerie with the Troublemakers in Seattle about the viral protests against Elon and Tesla.
#Labor #leftisbest #radicalpolitics #directaction #solidarity#mutualaid #anticapitalist #organizing #antifascist #antiracist#socialism #revolutionary #anarchism #democracy #resist#classwar #classwarfare #teslatakedown #takedowntesla2w
Feb. 28, 2025
Ordower published an Instagram video to oppose a lawsuit against Green Peace.
March 3
March 4, 2025
@GreenRedPodcast shared the news on Instagram of seven Tesla charging stations “torched near Boston.”
One person @allmusicisshittogod responded: “That’s a good start.”
March 8, 2025 — @ElonMusk writes “5 ActBlue-funded groups” behind protests
Musk wrote on X:
An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America.
ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix.
ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations. This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.
@DataRepublican started listing leads on X.
Monday, March 10, 2025 - Electrek: protests “grassroots movement”
Electrek’s Fred Lambert published an article, claiming:
“As we previously reported, it started as a grassroots movement with some posts on BlueSky, an X competitor, last month.”
It said:
“As it grew, some groups have gotten involved to organize local protests, like The Disruption Project, which claims to stand ‘against the unjust systems of racial capitalism, the hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy and settler colonialism.’”
It added:
”In Seattle, The Troublemakers, a local environmentalist group, has also been helping organize.”
“The biggest blow to Musk’s claim is that there have also been protests outside the US, including in Canada and Europe. It’s unlikely that the US Democratic party would be involved in those.”
“There are currently six protests planned in Europe by the “Tesla Takedown” in the coming weeks…”
Thursday, March 13, 2025 - Democracy Now!: “organizer” Valerie Costa
Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman said:
We speak with Valerie Costa, an organizer behind the grassroots Tesla Takedown movement peacefully protesting outside Tesla showrooms to oppose billionaire owner Elon Musk’s role in government….
This week, President Trump personally intervened on behalf of his adviser and held a promotional event with Musk at the White House, where he said he would buy an electric vehicle and declared attacks on Tesla dealerships to be “domestic terrorism.”
Meanwhile, Musk personally attacked Costa, falsely accusing her of “committing crimes” in a post on his X social network. “They’re peaceful, nonviolent protests,” says Costa, an activist and organizer in Seattle. “Protesting Tesla … is ultimately about hitting Elon Musk’s bottom line.”
In the interview:
AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined now by Valerie Costa, a Seattle-based activist who’s helping to organize the Tesla Takedown movement with the local group Troublemakers and others.
Valerie, can you talk about Elon Musk singling you out? And what are you doing in organizing — what is your goal — these protests around the country, from Washington state, Seattle, where you are, to here in New York, the Tesla dealership here?
VALERIE COSTA: Yeah. Hi.
So, this past weekend, I woke up first Saturday to a tweet where Elon Musk had tweeted that Troublemakers, the group I organize with, along with four other organizations, were ActBlue-funded, which, at least for Troublemakers, is outright not true. And then, Sunday morning, I received — a friend sent me the most chilling text for me, which was Elon Musk had retweeted another tweet where this person had taken a clip from a podcast interview I did about the Tesla Takedown protests and made allegations that I was promoting vandalism and such. And Musk said, “Costa is committing crimes.” So, that was terrifying to receive the news of that tweet.
,,,So, I am just an organizer with the Seattle-based group Troublemakers. There’s a group of us here. We’re working with a number of organizations and individuals who have been planning protests at Tesla showrooms in the area for the last month or so. They’re peaceful, nonviolent protests. They’re First Amendment-protected, free speech, peaceful assembly. And we’ve done that, and we’ll continue to do that as this movement is gaining momentum.
March 14, 2025 - @GreenRedPodcast: “viral grassroots movement”
On March 14, 2025, the Guardian published a column by Valerie Costa, describing herself as a “longtime local activist and organizer in Seattle.”
Her bio said: “Valerie Costa is the co-founder of Troublemakers and a longtime activist for environmental justice.”
She wrote:
Tesla Takedown is a completely decentralized movement with hundreds of protests taking place around the globe, drawing many thousands of people out of their homes and on to the public sidewalks to stand up for programs that support poor people, older people, veterans, the sick. Out of care and concern for others – a foreign concept to those currently in power – people are offering what they can to help. I’ve offered to schlep supplies, and helped someone find a bullhorn. The environmentally focused Seattle organization I’m a part of, Troublemakers, hosts a map where other people and groups can post the locations of forthcoming demonstrations. Troublemakers has about $3,500 in its bank accounts. All of this is a bare-bones, low-budget, people-powered movement – which is exactly why Musk is afraid of it, and casting about to find a villain.
There are currently 91 Tesla Takedown protests planned across the world this coming weekend, and there will be more the weekend after that. If there isn’t one at the Tesla showroom nearest you, you can start one just by showing up with some friends or family, maybe making some cardboard signs.
There are currently 91 Tesla Takedown protests planned across the world this coming weekend, and there will be more the weekend after that.
GreenRedPodcast published an Instagram post, saying:
To be clear, organizing a viral grassroots movement against a Nazi wannabes’ car company is not “domestic terrorism.”
We recently interviewed Valerie Costa with the @troublemakerscommunity and the grassroots movement @tesla.takedown on our show and this greedy insecure MF and his trolls went after her because of her fighting back against their attack of our government’s safety net and the growing authoritarianism.
Get involved and fight back! An attack on one is an attack on all!
You can see the interview in our bio.
#takedowntesla
#Labor #leftisbest #radicalpolitics#directaction #solidarity #mutualaid#anticapitalist #organizing #antifascist #antiracist #socialism #revolutionary #anarchism #democracy #resist #classwar#classwarfareEdited · 4d
GreenRedPodcast describes itself as:
Green and Red Podcast
A scrappy podcast on radical enviro & anti-capitalist politics.
Hosted by @sparki1969 and @robertbuzzanco. #leftisbest
Oil and Gas Action Network
Message
Oil and Gas Action Network
Supporting grassroots & frontlines movements taking action to end the era of fossil fuels.
March 14, 2025 - @OilAndGasActionNetwork
🚨 Tesla Takedown is WORKING. 🚨
💥 100+ events last weekend.💥 100+ more this weekend.
📉 Tesla’s stock is down 30%.
Elon Musk & Donald Trump are desperate to stop us—spreading lies, attacking organizers, and even buying new Tesla cars as a PR stunt. But we won’t back down.
📍 Find an event near you or organize your own. The fight for democracy, free speech, and justice is NOW.
🔗 Link in bio to take action! #TeslaTakedown#BoycottTesla #PeoplePower#WeWontBackDown #TakeAction
March 15, 2025 - Watertown, Mass.,
Janet England was an organizer. On her X account, she supported Kamala Harris and ridiculed Musk.
March 19, 2025
March 20, 2025: Fight for the Future
March 19, 2025: “Tesla Takedown Paramus” by “Rockland Indivisible”
Start: Wednesday, March 19, 2025• 4:00 PM
End: Wednesday, March 19, 2025• 5:30 PM
Location:Tesla Paramus - Route 17 Location•530 NJ-17, Paramus, NJ 07652 US
Host Contact Info: teslatakedownparamus@gmail.com
Al Jazeera propaganda: “Tesla backlash” and Jen Cousins
Cousins “an activist and organizer in Orlando, Fla.”
March 29, 2025
In Lyndhurst, Ohio, the partisanship is clear. The invite states: “Join Eastside Cuyahoga Democratic Clubs” and “other progressive organizations and workers’ rights groups” at the Tesla dealership on Mayfield Road. The Lyndhurst Democratic Club shared its logo of a red-white-and-blue donkey bucking in the air and LyndhurstDemClub@gmail.com as the contact email. “Voices Ignited” posted the protest on Mobilize.us. It added a link to a GoFundMe – “Assist Local Demonstrations – to raise funds for “permits, travel expenses, water and other supplies necessary to organize demonstrations in their area.”
In Westmont, Il., “Indivisible West Suburban Chicago” plans a protest on W. Ogden Avenue, with the same plan: “Bring your own signs encouraging people to honk for democracy.”
BACKSTORY
1980s, 1990s — Jeff Ordower told origin story supporting the left, with the Sandinistas”
In an interview published at The Forge, an organizing website, Jeff Ordower, a professional organizer whose group years later targets Tesla and Elon Musk, chronicled his support for the “the left, with the Sandinista and whatnot” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Columbia University in 1991.
He said:
“…my mom is writing a chapter in a book about ’60s and ’70s feminism in St. Louis. That’s my origins. And then I did a bunch of queer stuff in college. We didn’t use the term intersectional, but there was an intersectional campus left, where there were folks that were doing Central American solidarity — this was late ’80s, early ’90s, when there was hope for a left, or it was one of the iterations of hope for the left, with the Sandinista and whatnot. There was a bunch of stuff happening on campus, and then friends of mine went from there into the labor movement, and I followed them. And that’s how I wound up at ACORN, because it was adjacent to the labor movement. That’s how I got into being a professional organizer.”
September 2013 - Ordower started @MoreDower on Twitter
Ordower started a Twitter account to share his protests.
Oct. 7, 2013 - Ordower posted against “Wall street crimes”
Aug. 10, 2014 — Ordower “in the room” for Ferguson protests
In an interview, organizer Tory Russell said organizer Jeff Ordower was in “the room” as the protests began against the killing of a young black man, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, outside St. Louis.
He said:
Looking back on it, some days it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like it was a lifetime ago. I can remember, before the coalitions were built, meeting in the SEIU building, seeing Jeff, meeting Montague [Simmons]. It was funny to go from protesting, then they invited me to the room. Then, I’m in the room, and I meet somebody like Phil Agnew of the Dream Defenders, who occupied the Capitol Building.
He noted:
Michael and Denise [Lieberman, a lawyer with the Advancement Project] made that decision to keep message discipline, so you didn’t have groups being like, “There’s good protests and bad protests.” There were daytime protests, and there were nighttime protests.
April 10, 2015 - George Soros’ Open Society interviewed Ordower
Open Society Foundations posted an interview with Ordower over Ferguson protests:
Montague Simmons, executive director of Organization for Black Struggle, and Jeff Ordower from Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment are on the front lines in Ferguson, working to improve recruiting, training, and civilian oversight of the police; reform the municipal fine system; and boost civic participation. Simmons, Ordower, and Janai Nelson, associate director-counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, came together at a recent event to talk about their work.
Troublemakers created
The about page reads:
We are an ever-growing community of people who are committed to taking action for life on Earth. Our strength is in our connection to each other, and this connection gets stronger the more we make good trouble together.
We cannot stand aside while racial capitalism and neocolonialism destroy this beautiful planet, all for the benefit of a few. As residents of the United States we are benefiting from this injustice, even if we don't want to.
We can resist the corporations, governments, and institutions that are locking us into a terrifying future--and also resist a so-called eco-fascist response that means we're only looking after those we perceive to be "our own."
Troublemakers is a community. We like a good party. And we have each other’s backs. Join us and meet the crew. We’ll be throwing parties, going on hikes together, and having a good time. We’re going to enjoy life while raising a ruckus.
Its invitation to join the group reads:
Why engage in direct action?
We cannot stand aside while racial capitalism and neocolonialism destroy this beautiful planet and its biodiversity, all for the benefit of a few. As residents of the United States we are benefiting from this injustice, even if we don't want to. The system is designed this way. What we can do is resist the corporations, governments, and institutions that are locking us into a terrifying future--and also resist a so-called eco-fascist response that means we're only looking after those we perceive to be "our own." For the moment, at least, most of us face less risk in our resistance than many people around the world.
Signing up for joining is powered by ActionNetwork.
Jan. 19, 2017 - Ordower organized Philadelphia “stagecoach” protest
Jan. 26, 2017 - Ordower shared anti-Trump, anti-GOP protest
About 2019 — Professional organizer Jeff Ordower planned to launch “The Disruption Project” with “some comrades”
On TheForge.com, a website dedicated to professional protestors, a contributor is Jeff Ordower, described as a professional “organizer for 25 years,” graduating from the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and later organizing for ACORN, a far-left organizing group that shut down.
He established “Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment,” working at the “intersection of economic, climate and racial justice” and taking credit for “playing a role in undergirding the Ferguson uprising.”
The profile noted: “With some comrades, he is (hopefully) imminently launching something called The Disruption Project.”
Jeff Ordower has been an organizer for 25 years and got his start as a queer activist in college. A graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and an organizer with SEIU in Texas, he then went on to run ACORN offices in Houston, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Connecticut and spent ACORN’s last six years at ACORN as its Midwest Director. After the destruction of ACORN, Ordower helped start-up Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment (MORE), a community organization in Missouri that worked at the intersection of economic, climate and racial justice. MORE ran campaigns targeting the largest coal companies in the world, many of which were based in St. Louis while also playing a role in undergirding the Ferguson uprising. Ordower was privileged to also support the Occupy Homes and Home Defenders League movements. Recently, Ordower helped with organizing rideshare drivers in California and is also helping to launch a Green Worker Alliance. Ordower serves on the Leadership Team of Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) and in the Rising Tide North America Collective. He is trying to live his best life as an itinerant organizer and spends a lot of his time thinking about sustained mass action. With some comrades, he is (hopefully) imminently launching something called The Disruption Project.
June 29, 2021 - Activist called out Ordower as a corrupt “savior”
In an article on Medium, an activist, Jamilah Bellinger, wrote a scathing profile of Ordower, saying he engaged in “performative activism” when colleagues shared ideas.
She wrote:
Most likely, one of us shared an idea and Jeff, with his usual antics, suggested a bigger action to get more eyes for this grand spectacle that’d pump up his performative activism.
She outlined various allegations of corruption as a protest organizer, concluding:
Jeffrey Ordower this is a call out, because I’m not in community with you. You are not invited in organizing spaces due to the harm you’ve caused dozens if not hundreds of people through your personal actions, and managerial decisions. You should never work within nonprofits, labor unions and spaces, and any organization working with marginalized groups of any kind.You have made my time at Green Workers Alliance unbearable, and I have never met you in person. I plan on keeping it that way. You need to be held publicly accountable to all the harm you’ve caused over the entire length of your career. I’ve seen the articles you’ve written, the podcasts you produce, so I know you’re comfortable with speaking publicly -if your many photos of you holding a megaphone didn’t make it apparent enough. You’ve made your entire living, reputation, and career off your proximity to marginalized people. In that time you’ve assumed a moral authority over the very people you aim to “help” and the people actually doing the organizing work. You are a part of a much bigger system that allows the wealthy to pick and choose which people are worthy of social services through nonprofits perpetual need for grants. You’ve shown were your allegiance truly lies. It’s time for you to step down again but this time, permanently.
April 18, 2022 - Ordower reposted “Tax the Rich” protest
Jan. 17, 2020 — “Disruption Project” launched on Facebook
The group posted an image from a fiery protest in Chile in 2019 at the Plaza de la Dignidad, or “Plaza Italia,” where the chant was “Chile Desperto!” The translation: “Chile Woke Up!”
It launched on X as @DisruptProject, and it only had 34 followers by March 2025.
Jan. 30, 2020 — Disruption-Project.org registered on SquareSpace
According to a WhoIs search, an anonymous person registered Disruption-Project.org, using SquareSpace.
Its resources currently include PDFs on these topics:
“How to Take Over a Home” —“It is time to take the fight house by house, block by block, building by building,” the guide states.
“When Planning an Action - Things to Consider” — This is a step-to-step guide with roles — “scouts,” “chant leaders and action leaders,” “tactical leaders,” “traffic blockers,” “jail support.” It suggested using a “text alert over the 90975 system” to send communications to protestors.
“What to do in an Uprising” — It features a section, “How to Start an Uprising,” and offers tips on how to “nationalize” an uprising.
The group posted a PDF, “Lessons for Organizers in an Uprising. Insights from the Ferguson Uprising and Some Useful Organizing Principles in This Moment.”
The Disruption Project is dedicated to supporting uprisings, resistance and mass direct action. Our belief is that when mass numbers of people stand up and take action against the unjust systems of racial capitalism, the heteropatriarchy, white supremacy and settler colonialism, we have the ability to force ruptures and dismantle these systems. In other countries we have seen uprisings nonviolently topple dictatorships and illegitimate governments. We know that courage and numbers can take us far, but we also need strategy, discipline, tactical acumen, and division of labor. With the mix of skills, thoughtfulness, courage and numbers of folks, we have a shot at real systems change.
Feel free to contribute to this site. Revolutionary people power gets us to a different society where: everyone has what they need to live and adequate leisure time. We can dismantle the systems that uphold structural racism and win reparations for Black folks, win some sort of repatriation of land to indigenous people, create an open US border and an end to imperialism, and a just transition out of a destructive economy. We think we are often told to compartmentalize demands, justice for one family, when we need to be looking at the wealthiest and most powerful people, financiers and corporations who profit from this system. Feel free to reach out at info@disruption-project.org and we’ll be in touch.
Feb. 20, 2021 - Jeff Ordower wrote that activists must “Build New Infrastructure for a Broader Movement”
In an article on Convergence.mag, Ordower’s bio said he is “currently thinking” about “how to create structures that undergird or foment mass-scaled action through the Disruption Project.”
It read:
Jeff Ordower comes out of ACORN and has been a community and labor organizer for the past 25 years. He is currently thinking about how to create structures that undergird or foment mass-scaled action through the Disruption Project, while simultaneously supporting the creation of the Green Workers Alliance, an organization for current and aspiring green workers fighting for better wages and working conditions, while being a clear worker-led voice for a just transition off of fossil fuels.
He wrote:
A freewheeling militant orientation, undergirded with support structures and increased tools and training, could radically increase the amount of collective workplace action over the next few years.
He called for “scaled disruptive direct action.” He noted: “There are things we can do to try to foment uprisings. And finally, there are direct action campaigns that are inherently or potentially disruptive. Direct action requires some distinct kinds of scaffolding.”
He noted:
Edge organizations that can create conditions like last summer’s rebellion, or create a left flank, are not necessarily built to last, but are immensely valuable.
He called for “supporting direct action campaigns.”
He rallied readers to build “paid organizing and political work.”
He wrote:
Expanding our views on paid organizing and political work. Institutions, especially longer-term base-building institutions, both labor and community, are vital. Leaders of those institutions are often a combination of the best in the movement, detail-oriented visionaries who work night and day building their organizations. But we also need to support people who view organizing as their unpaid political work, or who are not seeking to build nonprofits or move up the organizing management pathway. We can coach and mentor them if they want to move into more freewheeling, impermanent organizing experiments. We can think about ways to reduce their cost of living with solidarity housing, shared meals, and other arrangements that would give them much more time to engage in the work of organizing. If we can support their choices, and provide them some ability to meet their basic needs, the number of talented, experienced organizers outside of our current structures will grow.
Crisis presents movement opportunities of which we cannot yet conceive—but we can build the scaffolding, skills, and people who are able to vision, throw down and support in these times of crisis. May we strengthen the old and build the new.
Oct. 9, 2021 - “Jeffrey Ordower” posted article on The Disruption Project website
2022 - Operation Disruption 990 IRS filing
Operation Disruption’s IRS 990 filing for 2023 listed revenues of $28,400, with expenses of $26,926.
It listed four officers:
Wende Marshall, board chair, working five hours per week
Kathryn Sipp, treasurer, working one hour per week
Arielle Klagsbrun, board member, working one hour per week
Jeffrey Ordower, secertary, working five hours per week
None got compensation.
The group didn’t reveal its donation sources.
The filing noted:
We apologize for the late filing. I think since we filed in October last year, we presumed we could file again in October this year. We understand if any fines will be incurred. Thank you for your patience and we will file earlier next year.
Sept. 20, 2023
Volts interviewed Ordower, who argued for “organizing around building.”
In this episode, organizer Jeff Ordower of 350.org talks about how the environmental movement can shift its focus from blocking what it doesn’t like to building what it does….
So how can the green movement help things get built? How can it organize around saying yes?
Recently, the activist organization 350.org hired Jeff Ordower, a 30-year veteran organizer with the labor and queer movements, in part to help figure these questions out. As director of North America for 350, Ordower will help lead a campaign focused on utilities standing in the way of clean energy.
Dec. 7, 2023 — Disruption Project rallies to “Shut It Down for Palestine”
How to support Gaza
People around the world are taking action in solidarity with the people in Palestine, working to stop the genocidal attacks on Gaza by the Israeli military. Here are some resources and toolkits from U.S. based groups:
Congressional Actions sign-up and toolkit [Link to: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/gaza-peace-actions-on-congress-2/]
February 2024 - Orodwer published “Power Lines” about “labor-climate justice movement”
The New Press published “Power Lines: Building a Labor-Climate Justice Movement,” co-edited by professional organizer Jeff Ordower.
The bio described Ordower:
Jerr Ordower is the North America director of 350.org. Prior to joining 350, he was a co-founder of the Green Workers Alliance. The co-editor (with Lindsay Zafir) of Power Lines (The New Press), he lives in Philadelphia.
The promotion railed against the “corporate elite” and rallied for “creative and effective organizing” to oppose them:
The corporate elite have long pitted climate and labor movements against each other through a “jobs vs. the environment” narrative that maximizes profits. But over the last few years, labor unions and climate organizers have been pushing back against this framework and organizing for a real just transition.
Featuring contributions from key organizers in climate justice and labor, Power Lines tackles the most pressing questions facing those who are trying to build a movement for economic and environmental justice. The collection provides practical organizing models and strategies as well as inspiration for the possibility of making change on climate.
Power Lines moves beyond an analysis of the class politics of climate change or the strategic imperative of federal climate legislation, making the case for the urgency of a robust labor–climate justice movement. It also shows us how we can build that movement by sharing some of the most creative and effective organizing happening on the ground right now.
March 2024: Troublemakers “shut down” all Amazon exits
Troublemakers wrote on its website:
Next, we shut down all the employee entrances to Amazon Headquarters in March, in order to protest its association with a disastrous pipeline expansion...and a few months later, won again, as Amazon dropped its plans to buy fracked gas from the GTN XPress expansion.
March 27, 2024: Ordower did “Green & Red” podcast against “the bosses”
The summary of the interview read:
The bosses have long pitted workers against those fighting pollution, extraction and the climate crisis. As the climate crisis worsens, labor unions and environmentalists have begun to build important new alliances to challenge the power of capital and industry. In the new anthology, "Power Lines," co-editors Jeff Ordower and Lindsey Zafir discuss the challenges and successes of this growing labor-climate movements. In our latest episode, Scott talks with Jeff Ordower (@moredower) and Norman Rogers (@NormN3D) about the prospects of enduring relationships between labor and climate movements. We discuss just transition, how the bosses often attempt to turn workers against calls for climate action, and how false solutions like nuclear and carbon, capture and storage fall into this landscape.
2024 - Trainings by TroubleMakersCommunity.org
The writer said:
So…we also held multiple trainings, like Know Your Rights to De-escalation to Light Projections to political theatre, hosted over a dozen social events (hikes, bike rides, brewpub meetups, practice-Spanish-gatherings, and more), and gathered often to make art for our actions. Our Community thread allowed Troublemakers to connect with each other and join in on many actions that we ourselves didn’t organize.
More interlopers:
Much love ❤️, the Troublemakers Coordinating Team (Alice, Cindy, Ellen, Emily, Jim, John, Margo, Scott, Val)
July 2024: More Amazon protests
TroubleMakersCommunity.org posted about recent protests.
We weren’t done with Amazon, so in July, we joined with Stand to shut down 6th Ave in front of Amazon HQ, demanding it “deliver change” and stop being a “prime polluter.” Our police liaison did get arrested at this action but we’re hopeful he won’t be prosecuted.
In August, we joined with Third Act and Stop the Money Pipeline in a sit-in at Costco’s HQ to protest the local company’s affiliation with Citibank, the world’s #1 funder of fossil fuel projects….and in October, we secured a meeting with the CEO; conversations continue!
Violent protests are illegal and should be prosecuted. Most of the people and organizations reported on here are non-violent individuals and groups exercising their First Amendment rights. The fact that there are hundreds of groups that work together demonstrates the grass-roots component of these protests. Asra seems to be distressed that left leaning citizens are organized. I don't understand-the right has the Federalist Society, the Heritage Society, Project 2025, and the grassroots MAGA faithful. There are violent extremists in both camps. Why spill so much ink?