Editing Ruckus Society (section)

== Background ==
In an interview with John Sellers, former executive director and current president of The Ruckus Society, stated that [[Mike Roselle|Roselle]] and [[Twilly Cannon|Cannon]] founded The Ruckus Society in the mid-1990s based on the "direct-action model" they learned from [[Greenpeace]].{{citation needed | date=March 2022}}

The name of the organization, explains Sellers, is not an acronym but refers to the term "ruckus", meaning "a loud, angry interruption, a hullabaloo, a disruption."<ref name=":0" />

The Ruckus Society's mission is to provide training in classic nonviolent direct action and [[civil disobedience]] tactics in the context of community-driven campaigns, including creative resistance, urban rappelling, media & communications, and blockades with and without gear.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news|url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Graduate-School-for-Protesters-D-C-is-next-for-2789439.php|title=Graduate School for Protesters / D.C. is next for the Ruckus Society and its well-trained troublemakers|last=Wells|first=Janet|date=April 8, 2000|work=SFChronicle.com|access-date=2018-08-30|language=en-US}}</ref>

The organization consists of a small core group of staff members, and a larger team of volunteers in close contact with the leadership.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|url=https://newleftreview.org/II/17/tom-mertes-grass-roots-globalism|title=Grass-Roots Globalism: Reply to Michael Hardt|last=Mertes|first=Tom|year=2002|journal=New Left Review|issue=17 |pages=101–110 |language=en|access-date=2018-08-30}}</ref> In 2002, the organization had a staff of four full-time employees, roughly thirty volunteers, over 120 people acting as trainers, and over 2,000 graduates of their training opportunities.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /> Volunteers designs custom trainings and camps based on the specific needs and campaigns of the activists, and use popular education techniques to allow participants to discover the direct action knowledge they already possess. According to leadership, The Ruckus Society provides, "non-violence training, media training, direct action planning and strategy, and scouting."<ref name=":0" />