Thanks For Helping RMO Get To The US Social Forum!
RMO at the USSF, photo by Nathan Torp
Thanks for helping us get to Detroit for the USSF! We could not have done it without your help and we were proud to represent those who could not make it.
We started the trip out with a fun day at Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival and headed on to Michigan. The green-black-and-silver veggie oil-powered VROOM school bus drank some bad oil in Cleveland and had to rest and recover there during the USSF. We are very grateful to our many USSF-bound friends who heard our SOS and stopped to give us rides.
We learned a lot, we rocked a lot. We played many shows and actions in Detroit and on the road–including the opening night party at the Trumbullplex, the opening march, an action for fair wages for restaurant workers with ROC, a river pagent with Matrix Theater, and a birthday march for Grace Lee Boggs (95!).
RMO arrived home exhausted, but happy and fulfilled. Since the USSF, we have been in the streets supporting rent reform, health care for all, community gardens, and Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali’s employees. Come join us!
Big Fundraising Push: Help us get to the US Social Forum!
Dear Family, Friends and Comrades of the the Rude Mechanical Orchestra!
In the last year the RMO has played over 50 events, supporting dozens of organizations fighting for justice in New York City and beyond! Now we are ready to take our show back on the road to attend the US Social Forum (USSF) this June in Detroit, Michigan. The 2010 USSF will be a gathering of 20,000 activists and organizers from across the United States converging in Detroit to build power and strategize within and across issues and movements under the banner of “Another world is possible; Another US is necessary”.
RMO is extremely excited to be going as a band and we believe that our participation in this event will allow us to learn, connect and organize our creative force in a way that will better support the movement. We will also be conducting a USSF workshop in collaboration with other radical street bands from North Carolina and California. To make this happen, we need your help.
RMO is fundraising for the cost of our travel, food and lodging for the USSF. We are a big group and we are also committed to bringing some of our NYC allies with us. We have raised the majority of our needed funds (thank you if you came to our Social Forum fundraiser!) and are now in the final push. We are hoping to raise about $4,000 to get our big green and black sparkly band and our NYC allies to Detroit and back in our veggie oil bus.
Please consider donating to this worthy cause. While this will not be tax deductible, it will be put to good use and will certainly be more interesting than your contribution to Greenpeace. Click DONATE (under the trombone to the right) to use PayPal and get the RMO to the USSF!
Thank you thank you thank you!
Love, Sequins & Solidarity,
The RMO.
“We Shall Overcome” in Harvard Square at Honk Festival 2009:
Le Tigre’s ‘Deceptacon’ (There are also ‘family friendly’ versions of the chant)[Scroll down to: "LOVE/WAR/SEX: Rude Mechanical Orchestra" and click for video.]
We’re Not going to Take It! Minneapolis, 2008 (RNC trip):
In the community – NYC Lower East Roving Garden Party (2007)
