This summer, Bill McKibben (from 350.org) wrote a powerful piece in Rolling Stone called Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math, and it quickly became one of the most widely shared and widely read articles in the history of Rolling Stone. Organizing Upgrade wanted to encourage everyone to read it because we believe that it clarifies just how serious the climate crisis is and - maybe even more importantly - because Bill McKibben makes a very clear strategic call in this piece: to start direct struggle against the fossil fuel companies as “public enemy number one” instead of trying to win them over to small changes. We believe that organizers in every sectors of the social justice movement in the United States need to take this strategic call very seriously and figure out how to integrate it into their existent work.    So, we encourage you to read the full article with your fellow organizers and to use the following discussion questions to talk about what this “terrifying new math” means for our organizing work.

When there's a contract, then call us maybe

Originally published on Occupy.com

A group of illustrators have conceptualized a deck of playing cards, dubbed "52 Shades of Greed," that lambastes Wall Street executives and politicians for their roles in the financial crisis.

"52 Shades of Greed is a deck of playing cards bearing illustrations of the people and financial institutions whose lust for money took the rest of us for a ride toward economic collapse," said the Alternative Banking Group of Occupy Wall Street, which commissioned the project.

"I thought that my collaborator Daniel and I would do some face cards and combine those with a standard deck of numbered cards for a sweet little project," said Marc Scheff, the art director for 52 Shades of Greed. "Then he suggested bringing in more illustrators, so we made some calls. Within a few days, the project snowballed into a massive collaborative undertaking involving 28 artists from around the world. The deck grew to 56 cards - 52 in the deck plus 4 bonus - on an extremely tight deadline. The vision evolved into making a visually dynamic and coherent set of cards with text and illustrations that would give people a snapshot of who the players are in this casino we call the world financial system."

The creators are currently hosting a fundraiser for the project. They hope to cut 1,000 decks to distribute during Occupy Wall Street's one year anniversary on September 17.

See the full deck here.